


Of Wolf And Man

by Lady_Kymoon



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: But some violence anyway, Crazy vilain bent on world domination, M/M, Made up science and magic, No more violence than in canon, Too much fluff for something so ploty, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-03 04:04:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1065542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Kymoon/pseuds/Lady_Kymoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve thought his new relationship with Tony would be his main problem for a while; however, the relationship turned out to be the easy part. The hard part came when he discovered that crazed fangirls could attack him. And little did he know that they had such big eyes… And sharp teeth… And furry ears!<br/>And then, somehow, Steve’s existential question had gone from where to bring Tony on a date to why would anyone want to turn Captain America into a werewolf?!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: It's Not Who You Are; It's Who You Know

**Author's Note:**

> This was done for the Cap/IM Big Bang so of course this has art. [You can find it here](http://sconee.tumblr.com/post/68672596785) and it's just the most wonderful art I could have dreamed of for the story! Go and give Scone all the love she and her art deserve!
> 
> So many thanks to:  
> • Scone, who made art, but also helped finding names and resolving a lot of questions… She’s just wonderful and I loved working with her!  
> • Meween, who kept kicking my ass until that thing was written and then took the time needed to point all plot holes and faulty characterizations. Every author should have a Meween.  
> • Morgan and Jamie, who volunteered to beta at the very last minute.  
> And thanks to you, reader, for getting past the summary. I hope you enjoy the story.

**Saturday, 19th September**

Tony had just landed back from his business trip from Switzerland and he wanted one thing: find Steve and drag him to his room for marathon sex. And possibly some cuddles in between because Steve was apparently a cuddler and Tony was totally okay with that. Tony was totally okay with most things that involved Steve anyway. 

So, instead of waiting a full three seconds for the elevator, he summoned his armor as soon as he stepped out of the Quinjet. He had designed the damn thing, he could take it out for business trips if he wanted. Besides, they had 4 of those in the tower (5.3 if you added the spare parts).

With the armor on he was almost immediately at the top level of the tower, where he knew Steve was.

As he walked out of his armoron the balcony, Tony tuned himself to the room's microphones out of habit, getting the conversations of it's occupants.

"I still can't believe she was a werewolf," Clint was saying. And Tony had to stop for a second because… werewolf? Really?!

He looked at his team in case they were setting up a joke of some sort, or maybe talking about a TV show or another, but they all looked dead-serious. Steve had his back to the window, but he was sitting straight, a bit tense, so he was probably not in a joking mood. Thor and Clint were both frowning and Bruce was playing with his glasses. Serious business then.

"Me neither," Bruce added. "But the evidence is here.”

“It is indeed a troubling matter. However, we shall not let it change the balance of our team," Thor answered just as Tony was finally entirely out of his armor. If the balance of the team was involved that could only mean one thing…

"I knew it." Tony said, stepping into the room.

The others all turned to face him. Tony took a second to register their skeptical expressions.

"You knew it?" Steve asked, sounding almost hurt and Tony wondered if it was because of what he said or because of the bandage on his shoulder, which should have been healed by now. Tony made a mental note to ask later.

"You knew what, exactly?" Bruce asked, his tone dubious.

"That she wasn't human.”

“How did thou earn that knowledge?" Thor sounded quite skeptical too.

"It's obvious. She's too evilly sneaky to be human; though I would have bet on vampire over werewolf. Speaking dead languages and all."

There was a moment of silence and, taking in the faces of his friends, Tony had to wonder if they were on the same level. Misleading conversations were fun but not when one's security was involved (and since they were Avengers, "one's" meant "the planet’s" more often than not).

"We're talking about Natasha, right?" he asked just to be sure.

"No, we're not," came Natasha's voice from just behind him.

Tony jumped and before he finished his thought of _how-the-hell-did-she-get-there,_ he’d put his palm up reflexively ready to fire a repulsor at the redhead should she make a move. "Vade retro, Satanas!"

She raised a perfect eyebrow at him looking at his empty palm without even acknowledging his adequate use of latin locution. But he smiled back because the actual gauntlet was flying behind Natasha's head and would fire if she was really a threat. Tony hoped she wasn't though, because werewolf or not, he had kind of grown attached to her and her creepiness. And she probably knew it, because she didn't budge when she heard the sound of the gauntlet charging its repulsor.

"Don't be ridiculous, Stark," Clint said behind him. "’Tasha's not a werewolf.”

“I'm as human as you," she added.

Tony stored that information for later, because that probably meant she was somehow augmented as well.

For the moment, Tony dropped his hand and turned half back to the others, still keeping Natasha in sight just in case, and started to ask, "Then who are you tal… Oh shit!"

One look at Steve's still bandaged shoulder and grim face had been enough for Tony to understand.


	2. Chapter 1: And Of Things That Will Bite…

_**Sunday, 13th September** _

Steve hesitated in front of the church. It was Sunday morning and his feet had led him there, but he wasn't really sure it was where he wanted to be. The stone walls and glass stained windows were exactly the same as they’d been when he went there before the war. He had first been dragged there by his mother, then by the people from the orphanage, before finally going by himself because there was nothing else he could think of doing on Sunday mornings. 

Although he hadn’t totally understood the importance of it as a kid, he had soon taken to praying. His mother had explained prayers were a way to ask God for things and so he had asked, fervently, every Sunday, for his mother to get a better job so she could stop struggling with money, and for him to be less sick so he would stop being a burden. Then his mother had gotten ill and he’d prayed for her to heal but it didn't work. He’d hated God for that, but the priest said that he was being tested and should not lose faith. So he kept praying… For the other kids to lose interest in beating him up… For the doctors to find a cure for asthma… For the war not to start… Then for it to stop. Even when he was at the front, he kept praying, for the other soldiers and for their families.

When he was a teenager, Steve had started to question God while praying. He wanted to know why… Why the girls were ignoring him when he said something but laughed when Bucky was saying the exact same thing? Why the teachers looked disappointed when he said he wanted to be an artist? He had come to understand it was useless to ask God to change people, but he couldn't help but ask why he made them this way. And the question also applied to him… Why couldn't he find a girl attractive like he should? That had been the worst question he ever had to ask. He hated to even have to think about it, let alone in a church and yet… If half the things the priest said were true, then God had a perfectly good reason to make him prefer boys. But Steve never figured that reason out, so he just pretended to be interested in girls. The fact that girls were not interested in him helped a lot, but that changed with the serum. Then again, so had everything in his life.

And now, after almost four years of living in the future, he understood the importance of believing. Nonetheless, he was a bit worried about going to church. Everything seemed to have gone a few steps ahead while he was sleeping, except faith; that seemed to have gone a step back. Clint had said the priests on TV were not speaking for all Christians and Steve knew it was probably true. The priest in his old church would be nice just like the one when he was a kid, but still he would pity him for his preferences at best, and hate him at worst.

Steve had decided to stop lying about his liking of men, even if no one knew about it yet. He wouldn't shout it out loud, just tell the truth if asked about it. But the thing was, nobody ever asked, because they all thought Captain America was straight.

Bucky used to joke about it, saying that if the world knew, he would get to comfort all the girls who couldn't get into Steve's pants. Back then, they both knew that it was not what would really happen if anyone knew. But now… now things were different. Now two men could get married, just like any other couple.

Discovering that the world was more open had been a delight for Steve. More so when he finally had the courage to ask Tony out and… Okay, their first date had been a simple caterer-ordered dinner on the last floor of the tower, but it had been amazing.

That had been two days ago. They had another date planned for tomorrow evening. They would share kisses and hold hands when no-one else was around, though their schedules didn't allow for much of that. Of course, they would have to tell the others soon and the world sooner or later (preferably later, in Steve's opinion), but for now it was just the two of them.

Steve had never really been one for secrecy, but it had taken him long enough to just accept he preferred men and he was not ready to tell the world just yet. And Tony was so understanding, just letting him take his time.

So they would wait, but Steve knew it wouldn't be too long, because, with a boyfriend to hold his hand - and especially someone as amazing as Tony Stark - it would be far easier to tell the world he was gay.

That didn't make the whole church thing easier though. In fact, it even made it worse to know that he wanted to pray and worship God like every good Christian should but was not allowed because that same God gave him tastes that were slightly off the norm. It was unfair. Unfair and difficult and…

"What is troubling you, my friend?"

Steve startled and turned to see Thor standing just next to him. The Asgardian was wearing a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt – clothes far less out of place than Steve's old fashioned ones – but was still extremely recognizable, even with his sunglasses. Steve realized how deep in thought he must have been to not notice Thor arriving and shook his head.

"I just…" he gestured vaguely at the church. "I'm not sure."

Thor contemplated the church for a second then turned his attention back to Steve.

"Is this one of the temples where the Midgardians worship this God lady Darcy often mentions?"

Steve nodded.

"I see. Then what is the problem with this temple?”

“It's…" Steve sighed. "When I was a kid, I would come here every Sunday and now I feel bad for not coming anymore. But I'm not sure I want to listen to the priest." _Not sure I want to hear him say people like me should be put back on the right track._ He didn't say the last part out loud but Thor didn't need it to understand.

"Ah, this is a problem I faced often in my youth!"

Steve felt himself go wide-eyed at that. What was Thor talking about all of a sudden?

"We would visit Midgard every few months, but time passes differently here than on Asgard, so in the meantime years had passed in your realm. During those years, temples were erected for me and the Midgardians worshipped me. But if I did not come everyday to check on them, then the priests would start interpreting my sayings and lead the people to war in my name without me even knowing about it. I tried to stop it but I was young and got tired of Midgard. I came less and less. We… I did other things, explored other realms..." A painful expression crossed the Asgardian's face and Steve guessed he was talking of memories of happier times with his brother. He didn't mention it and Thor went on, "I should not have let this realm down and now I will make amends for it. But the important thing is that you should not listen to the priests. They interpret our words to make us say what they want.”

“So you say I shouldn't go.”

“Exactly! Believe in your god and do what you think he wants you to do. That is what I asked of my worshipers; that they ask themselves ‘What would the mighty Thor want us to do?’"

“But what if he wants me to do something else than what I think he wants?”

“Then that is his own fault for not coming more often to check on Midgard to make sure his words were not mistaken. And if he dares to be angry at you, I will talk to him. He surely will listen to another god."

Steve couldn't help but smile at that. Thor seemed so sure.

"You don't seem bothered by the idea of other gods.”

“Of course not! _God_ is the word Midgardians use for powerful beings from other realms. And my brother has proven to us that the Nine Realms are not the only ones in existence. Therefore the likelihood of other well-meaning beings from other realms coming to Midgard is quite high.”

“Well, when you put it like that."

Steve cast one last look at the church and resolutely turned his back to it.

Thor seemed to read his expression well enough, for he turned away from the church too and said, "So the matter is settled?”

“It is.”

“Very well then! I shall now ask you a question that has been bothering me, my friend…"

Steve looked at him expectantly with a bit of worry. What could be bothering Thor?

"The one with the Hawk's eyes mentioned eating hotdogs. How can one possibly eat those friendly creatures? Or are they other dogs? Like fire dogs! How come I haven't seen any of those yet? And how do you capture them?"

Steve had been expecting a more serious matter and couldn't help but laugh at the question.

He clapped Thor on the shoulder and led him through the streets in search of a hotdog vendor, all the while explaining that there were no actual dogs involved in the making of them.

***

_**Sunday, 13th September** _

The FGL (Friday Geek Lunch) had been Thor's idea. Or, to be precise, he had just wanted Jane to have friends with whom she could talk science with so he had introduced her to Tony and Bruce over lunch some Friday. And they’d hit it off quite well, so the Friday science lunch became a thing even though they had to do it over webcam more often than not since Jane and Tony both travelled a lot. It had been Clint who named it, after surprising Bruce alone in the kitchen, with Jane in Sweden on one screen and Tony in Malibu on another one. Tony called it the FGL from then on just because he thought it was fun. Then Bruce had introduced them to his girlfriend Betty, who was just as science-y as the rest of them so she was invited to the FGL. So was Erik Selvig. And Rhodey, even if he never came.

That particular Friday had been a world-saving Friday so the FGL was made an exception and rescheduled on Sunday. It was still early for lunch and not everybody was there yet. Tony was enjoying a little aperitif on the top floor of the tower with Betty and Bruce when he heard the elevator opening. It was probably Jane so Tony didn't bother turning to the door, preferring to keep his eyes to the data Betty was showing them on her tablet. But, since Betty already knew the data, she peered up. She immediately let out a shocked sound and said: "My God! What happened to you?!"

At that Tony turned his head in curiosity, half expecting to see Jane with a new haircut of dubious taste. But it was not Jane who just arrived. It was Steve and Thor and both of them looked like they had been attacked by something with claws and a hatred for shirts.

Tony got up and went to them without thinking. He knew he should make a comment, probably a joke. If it had been something worth assembling, Steve would have called, not come back to the tower, so there was room for jokes. But Steve looked so traumatized, Tony couldn't mock him. All he wanted was to wrap him in a hug and whisper stupidly fluffy things in his ear until those big blue eyes were back to their usual happy shiny-ness. And that Tony was more willing to comfort than tease was saying a lot about how far gone for the star-spangled man he was. But he didn't really want to think about that so he just put a hand on Steve’s shoulder and squeezed lightly.

"You okay? You look like you saw a ghost," Tony said. "Or a group of ghosts dancing the Macarena naked or something." He had added the last part a little too late and Natasha would probably have noticed he was forcing himself to keep things light, but she wasn't there so Tony figured it was okay.

Steve didn't answer though and that was worrying. But before Tony could start to panic, Thor explained, "We were ambushed by a horde of young females. Their war cry was so high-pitched that it stunned us and gave them the time to attack. Their main purpose is still unclear to me, but they appeared to be attempting to undress us."

It took Tony a second to analyze the story and Betty was faster to react (but Tony was distracted by Steve's traumatized eyes).

"So… that's Thor-speech for you two being attacked by fangirls in heat?" You could hear the smile in her voice and Tony would have smiled too because that was sort of funny.

"One of them bit me." Steve finally said. And he sounded so shocked that Tony didn't know what to do. Steve was never shaken. Steve was sure. Steve was Captain America, for fuck's sake! And yet a fangirl's bite was apparently enough to offend him. But Tony was probably more used to fangirls than any of them would ever be. Even if Steve had had his fair share of fans back in the day, people behaved differently back then – Steve would probably say people behaved back then, period.

So Tony could understand, to some extent, how scary a fourteen year-old fangirl could be when she’s screaming your name at the top of her lungs and ripping off your shirt in an attempt to get you to like her. He had never have been bitten by one of them though, and didn't know what to think of such a crazy action.

He could probably find the girl and have a restraining order put up against her. Or "accidentally" blast a repulsor at her face next time she approached Steve. Tony preferred the second option. Not that he was particularly possessive, but biting his boyfriend was not something he could pass off like a smile or a free coffee. And what was his life now? How come he think of Steve as his boyfriend so easily? He had a boyfriend. A secret boyfriend. Maybe he had more in common with those fourteen year-old fangirls than he first thought. Though he did not bite him (he could, if he was sure Steve would like it, but somehow this whole fangirl affair made him think he wouldn't see the appeal).

While Tony wasn't sure what to do, Bruce had doctor’s reflexes and he went to Steve as soon as he mentioned the bite.

"Want to show me that bite?" he asked, pushing Tony aside so he could examine Steve. Tony moved, but not without squeezing Steve's shoulder one last time.

The bite was on Steve's left upper arm, slightly on the back. It looked nasty and painful and if Steve hadn't had a super-fast metabolism, the healing would probably take forever and the scar stay even longer.

"It probably just looks worse than it is," Bruce diagnosed. "I'll disinfect it and get you a clean bandage that we'll change everyday and it should be okay."

Steve just nodded and followed Bruce to the elevator. Tony had made a medical wing on the floor where they parked the Quinjet and it came in handy after some world-saving, especially given the fact that, once he hulked back down, Bruce was very rarely hurt so he could help patch up his comrades and they didn't need to get to a hospital – the hatred of hospitals seemed to be one of the few things all Avengers had in common.

Jane arrived just before Steve and Bruce came back and the FGL turned less sciency and more epic as Thor told tales of his youth.

During the meal, Tony sat himself in front of Steve and positioned his legs just so that his ankle was casually leaning on Steve's shin. And he could swear that made Steve smile and participate more in the conversation.

***

_**Monday, 14th September** _

That night, Steve tossed and turned in his bed but couldn't find sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he could hear the cries of the girls who attacked them.

He was used to nightmare sbased on his various battles but this was different. They hadn't been his traditional opponents. They hadn't been human, not guys like him or Bucky or any of the others in the Howling Commandos who were simply born in another country and tried to give their best to serve it. The dead eyes of the first German officer he ever killed still haunted his dreams. Not those of the Hydra guys, those were fanatics and borderline crazy, and while killing them was not fun, it was a necessity. But the first time he killed a regular officer, one that worked for Hitler and not for Schmidt, that had made him sick.

And today wasn't even like the many robots and aliens he had to fight since he woke up. Those had been another kind of nightmare, closer to the ones where Hydra minions arrived from everywhere and literally took over the world by their sheer number and Steve would fight and fight and fight but they were always more, more, more…

No, today's attack had been of a totally new kind. The girls were young, for one thing. And not evil for the other. They just… Steve was really not sure what they wanted. At first, when he heard them cry out his and Thor’s names he thought they would run to them and ask for autographs (he had probably signed more autographed in the month after blocking Loki's attempt at ruling Earth than in the whole USO tour). Or maybe for a picture with them. But no, instead they tried to undress them. And Steve knew he was, just like every other Avenger and every celebrity in general, part of some people's fantasy but there was a firm line between fantasizing about being swept off your feet by a super hero and assaulting said super hero while he was eating hotdog in Central Park with a friend. But apparently that line was not clear in the girls' mind. And the attack had been such a shocking surprise that it was only when one of them actually bit him that Steve reacted and pushed them away. He really hoped he didn't break any of their bones, for they all had ended on their asses or back a few meters away. But they looked alright and even willing to get back to their shirt-destroying work. In fact, it was only when Thor had called Mjolnir and threatened to call the thunder on them that they ran away. Then Thor had flown them both back to the tower.

And so that night, when Steve closed his eyes, he could still feel their hands on him. It had not even been the sort of sensual caress that some people would sometimes give him (those always made him feel uncomfortable but generally a stern glare would put the person out of their reverie and they would apologize and turn away) nor the reverent handshake or pat on the back that most soldiers greeted him with. No, it had been ripping off his shirt and clawing at his skin. And biting. But the bite was not the worst part. Sure, it hurt, but it had been quick. Not like the hands that insisted.

In all objectivity, the thing probably only lasted for a few second, not even a full minute, but in retrospect it seemed far longer. And Steve felt violated.

He had taken a shower, had spent hours hitting the extra reinforced punching bag Tony made for him, had drawn a lake and a forest and mountains – but hadn't dared to try and draw someone for he didn't feel like drawing hands right then – and nothing had worked. He still heard them shout his name and felt them touching him without any care for his consent.

***

_**Monday, 14th September** _

The next day passed quickly for Steve, who was volunteering in a program to motivate children to practice sport and avoid junk food. He visited three different schools, where he did a quick speech before teaching gym lessons and signing autographs.

In the evening though, he had time to think even though he wasn’t really sure he wanted to. He sat on his bed, trying to get some rest, though he doubted his ability to sleep. The bite hurt, a slight but almost constant pain that reminded him of the attack. It was the first time he had been bitten. Even HYDRA’s guard dogs had never managed to sink their teeth in his flesh and it pained Steve that a young girl would do such an awful thing.

He stayed like that until the sound of the door opening startled him. He looked up to see Tony entering his room.

"Steve…"

Tony hesitated for a second, then went to sit on Steve's bed and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

Steve almost said no, but he didn't want to bother Tony with something ridiculous like being unable to sleep because of a bunch of kids. He didn't want to lie to him either, so he settled for a compromise.

"Yeah. Just… I can't figure out why those girls did that."

It was true, even if it was not the main problem.

Tony sighed. "Come here," he said, opening his arms so Steve could come closer. Tony wrapped his arms around him and kissed his neck and Steve immediately felt better. He put his arms around Tony to hold him close, only half listening to what he was saying.

"I wish I could tell you why, but they're teenage girls. No one knows what goes on in their minds. Especially not me, I was never a girl for one thing, and at their age I was building Dum-E. Maybe we should ask Pepper. Except she probably went from being a sweet little girl to being a businesswoman. I can't picture her in high school. Or maybe as a cheerleader, that would be an interesting sight."

When Tony stopped talking, Steve realized he was probably expecting him to say something, but he felt tired and all he managed to mumble was "You smell good." into Tony's neck. At least that was the whole truth. All he could think of at that moment was Tony. How warm he was, how good he smelled, how nice his voice sounded. Tony chuckled slightly in response and turned his head so they could kiss.

They kissed for a long time, sometime stopping for half a second and going back to each other's lips immediately. Steve could do this all night long and apparently, Tony was not opposed to the idea. He managed to climb on Steve's lap while still kissing him and settled there, making himself comfortable by locking his legs around Steve's back.

When they finally stopped kissing, they stayed close, foreheads touching, and it was only then that Steve remembered that instead of pitying himself for his inability to sleep he should have gotten ready for their date. He was still wearing the undershirt and pants of his Captain America uniform. Somehow, Tony read his mind and said, "So, have you forgotten about our date, or do you want to cancel it?”

“No, I…" Steve hesitated, he couldn't lie to Tony, but the truth was such a shame.

"You still want to go, right?”

“Yes! Of course! I just…"

Tony didn't let him finish whatever excuse he would have said. He kissed him instead, quickly this time.

"Get dressed then, I'll wait for you."

Steve nodded but when Tony moved to let him get up he couldn't help but catch him at the hips and bring him back on his lap.

"Aren't we cuddly tonight?" Tony asked. His tone was gently teasing but Steve felt himself blush. He hadn't planned on doing that, just acted on impulse. But Tony didn't seem to mind.

"Okay, you know what? Here's the plan, we forget about La Traviata and just stay here in your bed all night long."

Steve really wanted to say yes. He wanted nothing more than keep Tony there and not move. But that wasn't fair on Tony who had planned a date and booked a box at the opera.

"We can't do that. You reserved…" Steve protested, without moving though.

"Nonsense. JARVIS?"

“Yes, sir?" The ever present AI replied immediately.

"Call the opera, tell them we're not coming.”

“Certainl-”

“No!" Steve cut in. "Don't do that JARVIS. We will go.”

“Steve.”

“That's not fair to reserve an entire box and not show up at all. We should go." Steve even managed to sit up straighter and started to move Tony out of his lap, but Tony clung to his neck.

"We should nothing! JARVIS, let the opera be and call Bruce. Tell him he has a romantic date with Betty tonight. Oh, and make sure Happy knows he has to drive them.”

“Of course, sir.”

“There, all settled," said Tony with a smile, before taking off his jacket and opening two buttons of his shirt. "You're much more comfortable than any opera seat anyway," he added, leaning in to kiss Steve again.

They had stayed like that for hours, just kissing at first then talking, about Tony's projects and about Steve's day and a thousand other things. They avoided the subject of teenagers but that was okay, Steve didn't need to talk about it anyway. He needed to get over it and having Tony there, so warm in his arms, helped far more than anything.

When he finally went to bed that night, he fell asleep immediately; the girls' touches only a vague and distant memory, easily dismissed by the far more vivid and colorful memories of the evening he just spent cuddling his boyfriend.

They had almost gone from cuddling to much more, but Steve had been far too tired to do anything properly so he had stopped them. Tony didn't insist, but he had clearly been a bit disappointed, until Steve explained how he wanted the first time to be perfect. Then Tony had laughed and called him a hopeless romantic.

A few moments later, Tony had looked at Steve as though something had just occurred to him and asked, "When you say the first time, you mean just our first time together… or do you also mean your first time, like… first first, you know?"

Steve answered because Tony was his boyfriend and there was no reason to hide these things from him. So he told him everything. Which was admittedly not much. Steve wasn't a saint, far from it, but he had really few occasions to do anything with anyone. Tony was his first real boyfriend; there had been no other relationships before, just a few rushed encounters in dark corners during the war, where no one could see nor hear. And even if someone had seen something, most soldiers wouldn't have said a word, because they had far bigger worries than who groped who. So as long as it was consensual, no one cared… which didn't mean Steve was not discreet. Some were not, but Steve had some reservations about public displays of affection between a man and a woman and even more between two men. He felt these things should stay private. Holding hands and a few kisses were acceptable but groping your significant other in public was just not right, even now. That kind of show made Steve uncomfortable.

At that point, Tony had to get Steve back on track, because he had thought Steve was digressing and that was neither discrete nor working. But in truth Steve wasn't. He had planned on telling the whole truth to Tony, he just got caught up in his memories and started thinking aloud. So he mentally shook himself and went back on track to tell Tony all the sordid details of his past encounters.

That was short. There had been two soldiers whom he trusted with his secret and so they traded hand-jobs a few times. And then there had been Urs. Urs was a former SS officer who had deserted when he realized he wasn't protecting his country but killing his fellow Germans who weren't fitting the Nazi ideal. Seeing as he wasn't fitting that ideal either with his preferences for men, his desertion made even more sense, or so he’d told Steve. One night, they had been the only two staying at camp instead of going to see girls and Urs had taught Steve all he knew about blow-jobs. Then they talked and Steve could see how difficult it was for him to fight Germans so he sent him against Hydra instead, which was maybe less difficult since it was clear that Schmidt's goal was to rule the whole world in his name and not in Germany's. Urs wrote him a letter, weeks later, from a remote part of Poland. In it, he thanked Steve for giving him the chance to fight for his country.

Steve had finished telling Tony this with, "I received his letter the day before… the day before we captured Zola." And then the discussion had changed because Tony knew what happened during the capture of Zola. So Tony had simply moved the topic to himself and told Steve who had taught him how to give a blow job. And Tony was good at telling these kinds of stories and adding all the right details about this trick or that technique.

When they had finally decided to call it a night and go to bed, both of them were more than a bit turned on.

Later, when Steve had been alone, he had taken a shower and, after a bit of hesitation, had masturbated, thinking of Tony and how he could apply that theory about tongue on him. Weeks ago, it would have been impossible for him to masturbate while in a relationship without feeling incredibly guilty. He had been taught that it was a form of cheating, even if he was thinking of his boyfriend. But now… People were more open about sex in general and it seemed like most of them didn't mind. Or at least, the few whom he talked sexual topics about didn't seem to mind. And, most importantly, Tony didn't see it as cheating in any way, so it was okay.

Just today, when Tony had left him, he said that he would be taking care of himself to fantasies of Steve (okay, he said "I'll jerk off imagining your mouth around my cock") before going to bed and that had sounded so arousing that Steve couldn't think of it as wrong. In fact, he knew it was the exact opposite of Tony cheating on him, it was Tony being honest with him and giving him material for his own fantasies. So Steve didn't have to hesitate before answering "So will I" and that made Tony stop, stare at him, blink twice, then smile extremely happily and come back to kiss Steve one last time before finally leaving. That last kiss had been the filthiest of the evening.

***

_**Tuesday, 15th September** _

That night, Steve dreamt of running in the snow, followed by his friends. He didn't have to turn his head, he could just keep on running and he knew they were there, following him closely. If he turned, they turned, trusting his judgment wordlessly about the way they would go. He was the leader, they followed because they knew he was the best to take care of them. 

When he woke up, he was well rested. But the dream was strange. Not in a bad way. It was probably the first time since he lost Bucky that he dreamt of snow instead of having nightmares of it. Of snow and too high cliffs… of snow and too cold water… Snow had been associated with bad memories for so long. And suddenly there was this dream…

He had been running. He had been free. He had been having fun without any other worries than choosing the right path so even the weakest of his friends could follow him.

The dream was a fuzzy memory, becoming less and less clear as he woke up, so he let it disappear back into his subconscious. But he liked it. If he could dream of snow again, it was a good sign. He had dreamt a lot about it when he was a kid. He would have given anything to be able to build a snowman with Bucky, but the cold was not good for him and he ended up with the flu every time he so much as saw a snowflake. Then the Serum happened and the flu wasn't a problem anymore, but the next time he saw snow there were dead bodies on it and that broke the charm. So, yeah, it was definitely a good sign if he got back to liking it.


	3. Chapter 2: It Feeds, It Grows, It Clouds All You Will Know

_**Tuesday, 15th September** _

At the beginning of the afternoon, Steve stopped by Bruce's lab to get his bandage changed. The bite was still hurting, especially when he moved but it wasn’t the worst that had ever happened to him, so he’d almost forgotten to go. And when he opened the lab's door, he thought that Bruce might have forgotten too, seeing that he was shirtless in front of his computer. Steve almost turned around and left, not wanting to intrude on anything private (though really, couldn't people at least lock the room if they wanted to have webcam sex?), when he noticed that the girl on the computer was not Betty. It was a blonde woman Steve didn't know. And that was strange. Steve wouldn’t have imagined Bruce as the cheating type, and yet…

Unable to stop himself, Steve let the door close with a little more sound than was necessary. Bruce immediately turned to him and smiled.

"Ah Steve, you're here. Make yourself comfortable, I'm almost done here," he said, gesturing to his computer. He was his usual calm self, not the attitude of a guilty man caught in the act so maybe Steve was misinterpreting. Or maybe Bruce was a better actor than they all thought he was. Steve wondered about it while going to sit on a chair in the corner where he knew Bruce kept his medical instruments.

Bruce didn't say a word to the lady on the computer, just typed on his keyboard for a moment, then closed his computer and came to him.

"So, how does that bite feel?" Bruce asked, putting his glasses on.

"I've had worse. But, to be honest, it hurts more than I thought it would."

Bruce frowned at that. "That's strange… get your shirt off, I'll have a look."

Steve obediently got rid of his shirt but as Bruce started to undo the bandage, he couldn't help but ask, "So… um… who's that lady? A friend of yours?" There had to be a reasonable explanation for that.

"What lady?" Bruce asked, so genuinely confused that Steve felt a bit like an idiot.

"The one on your computer.”

“Oh, that! She's not real.”

“What?" This was even more confusing.

"It's a website where I order my lab supplies. They made a fake attendant to help you with your ordering. She's just a computer.”

“Oh…" Now Steve felt like a total idiot. "So she… can't see you?”

“Of course not! I would have put a shirt on otherwise.”

“Of course…" Steve mumbled, quite embarrassed by his earlier conclusions, but still. Why was Bruce bare-chested then? Steve knew that Bruce was not worried about being half naked around the team, what with Hulk wearing only pants, but still, he usually wore a shirt when he could.

Steve's thoughts were apparently written all over his face, because without stopping to unwrap his shoulder, Bruce said, "If you're wondering what happened to my shirt, well… I was dissecting one of those venom spitting half-plant, half-dog things that we fought last week and I was sure it was dead but it had a spasm. So I got rid of my lab coat and my shirt, just to be sure. Then SI's R&D called to know if I wanted to add something to their order and so… yeah, no shirt."

Steve released a breath he hadn't realize he was holding. He was relieved that Bruce had a perfectly normal explanation for his semi-nakedness in front of a lady on a computer. And really, if you had told him when he was younger that one day, "my shirt started to melt so I threw it away and then I didn't need to put one on because the lady is fake" would be a perfectly reasonable explanation, he would have told you to write science-fiction… or get your head checked.

Bruce just looked at him for a second and Steve didn’t hold eye contact, still slightly ashamed because really, he'd been stupid to jump to conclusions like that. He should trust his teammates more for one thing, and ask questions immediately as soon as a computer was involved, because these things were never what they looked like. This was especially true given the things they had to deal with while on avenging duty.

But Bruce was a good person, far more understanding than some other people (Clint and Tony, for example) so he didn't push the matter. Instead, he shook his head with a tiny smile and looked at the bite-wound he had just finished unwrapping.

Steve turned his neck to try and look at it, but it was difficult given its position near his shoulder. From his angle though, the bite looked awful. At least it was not hurting him as much as it looked like it should.

"Is that yellowish color normal?" Steve asked.

"No," Bruce answered immediately, reflexively pushing his glasses up his nose. "That looks like an infection… but you can't get infections. Plus, I made sure you got all the vaccines anyway." Bruce frowned, took off his glasses and chewed on it with a thoughtful expression. Finally, he put the glasses back on and said, "Look, I'll bandage it with antiseptics again, but I'll have to take a blood sample and run some tests."

Steve nodded his agreement and Bruce started to work on a new bandage.

"It's probably nothing though," Bruce said, while bandaging him. "I've ran a lot of tests on my own blood and it's clear that the reactions vary a lot depending on what the blood’s mixed with. So yours is probably the same. It wouldn't be that much of a surprise if the girl's cells are allergic to the serum.”

“Allergic?”

“Yeah, apparently it's not only Erskine's formula that made the whole super soldier thing possible, it's you too. Or maybe it could have been someone else but… We've been working on it for ages and never got any promising results except for the Other Guy and the Abomination. All we got was a lot of failures. And my personal theory is that not everybody reacts well to the serum, or any of the failed attempts at its replacement.”

“So you're saying that someone else wouldn't have become like me?”

“Anybody else would probably die. Or become a horror or an other… Of course I can't be sure because I don't have a sample of Erskine's actual serum, but I think your low immune system helped. Had you been stronger, your body might have tried to fight the serum and then the reaction would have been different."

Steve felt a certain amusement at the possibility that being the frail little guy turned out to be an actual advantage. It was ironic that the characteristics that earned him all those 4Fs might have helped save his life and turn him into a super soldier.

Bruce raised a curious eyebrow at Steve’s sudden smile and Steve explained, “I guess being a five foot nothing asthmatic had its perks.”

"Well, it's still just a theory," Bruce answered. "I could be wrong. And also, I'm quite sure that Erskine didn't know that. His only example was Schmidt…”

“So… had he chosen someone else they would have died and he wouldn't have known why?”

“He would have figured it out. He was brilliant like that. But I don't think he knew it because otherwise, why would he have made you do all this training before? All the other soldiers in the Strategic Science Reserve were healthy and, apparently, they were all considered possible candidates until Erskine said he wanted you because you were a good guy.”

“I know he said that but was it really all he said?" Steve was a bit doubtful, even though Erskine had told him so. Surely, there must have been a more scientific explanation, especially in light of Bruce’s theory.

"I read all the reports they had about this. I had a full clearance to the army's archives regarding the Super Soldier Serum. And apparently, back then, most others were sure Erskine was crazy to use you as his subject. And the main reason they thought him crazy was that there were no scientific reason behind his insistence at working with you. If he had explained the thing about the immune system, no one would have hesitated putting you in."

Steve didn't have anything to answer so Bruce resumed his bandaging.

Then Bruce went to retrieve a syringe to get a blood sample. Steve wordlessly gave his arm and, as Bruce was disinfecting the skin, the door opened and Tony entered. He took a step inside the lab and stopped to do a double take – his eyes lingering a bit longer on Steve than on Bruce – then he moved again.

"Tony…" Steve started but he wasn't sure what to say.

"Hey! You should have told me it was No Shirt Tuesday." Tony's tone was light and teasing but it was enough to make Steve realise that, to Tony, it look like they had a doctor themed affair going on. Steve felt himself blush.

"That's… That's not what it looks like!" And it wasn't, by far.

"Except if it looks like I'm taking a blood sample from our dear Captain to analyze the evolution of his wound, because that’s exactly what it is," Bruce added, quietly. He turned just long enough to give an acknowledging nod to Tony before focusing all his attention on Steve's arm and the needle he was about to plant in it.

Steve looked at Tony and waited until he was looking back at him to speak.

"Bruce's shirt melted when he analyzed the creatures we were fighting last week," Steve explained, nodding at the table at the other end of the lab where said creature was lying, half open.

"Oh," Tony just said in answer after a quick glance at the table with the creature.

"And he just changed my bandage," Steve added, hoping that Tony would understand all the "nothing else happened and nothing else could ever happen because I wouldn't want anything with anyone that's not you" behind those words.

And Tony either understood or he had no doubts in the first place because he just went on and said, "So, no No Shirt Tuesday?”

“No, Tony, no No Shirt Tuesday.”

“Too bad… It could have been a thing. I'm sure Thor would have liked it."

Steve just sighed, but all he really wanted to do was hug Tony and apologize for putting him in a position to have suspicions.

"So," Tony said once Bruce was done with the blood sample. "You're running tests.”

“Yeah, better safe than sorry," Bruce answered, putting his tools away. Steve took this as an opportunity to put his shirt back on, but he didn't miss the little pout that Tony directed to him over Bruce's shoulder. Fighting a blush, Steve managed to mouth "later" at Tony before Bruce turned back to them. Tony winked at him then put his attention back to Bruce.

"Do you think you could get a DNA sample from the girl?”

“Probably not. Maybe if I had analyzed the wound right away, but it's been too long and has already been cleaned," Bruce answered. "Why would you need a DNA sample anyway?”

“To get her in a mental facility or something," Tony said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. "I've done some research and have a list of names for the ‘horde of young females’ that ‘ambushed’ you." Tony actually made air-quotes while using Thor's descriptions of the attack. "But none of them bragged about biting Captain America on Facebook, or anywhere else… Maybe she retains some sort of intelligence. But anyway, I can have them all in court and under a restraining order easily. And if you recognize the biter, we can slap a heavier sentence on her.”

“Tony, that's really nice of you but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. They're just kids…" Steve wasn't sure he wanted to ever see them again, even if it was in court.

"Yeah, but we could set an example, so the next ones will act decently and just ask for an autograph and a picture, not try to actually run away with a piece of you," Tony said, crossing his arms. "Plus, their ‘high-pitched war-cry’ was enough ‘stun’ you, so if a super villain had been hidden nearby, that would have been a perfect opportunity. Imagine that… an army of fangirls."

The idea was actually quite frightening so Steve accepted the court thing. He didn't want Loki to use innocent young girls as weapons against him, so keeping them away might actually protect them. And it would protect Steve himself too because he really didn't want that kind of thing to ever happen.

***

_**Tuesday, 15th September** _

That evening, Tony was waiting in Steve's room after dinner and he asked for the promised shirtlessness. Steve obliged, though he felt self-conscious under Tony's stare. Tony licked his lips and approached him, looking quite predatory. He stopped a few inches away from Steve and put a hand on his chest, just above the heart. He moved his thumb. It was just a simple, light caress but coupled with his quite appreciative look, it was enough to make Steve blush. The blush made Tony smirk and he stepped just slightly closer, putting his other hand on the small of Steve's back, like he wanted to ground him, to make sure he would stay there… as if Steve would move. There was really nowhere else he wanted to be.

"You're so fucking perfect," Tony said. And he was close enough that Steve felt his breath against his skin, the words making him shiver just so slightly and blush all the more.

"Tony…" Steve cupped Tony's jaw with one hand, tracing the shape of his goatee with his thumb. He wasn't sure of what he should do. What he had with Tony was dramatically different than a quick fumble in the dark, rushed by the risk of being caught and even without that, the risk of the enemy attacking at any time. What he had with Tony was a proper relationship, one that would last, one that would eventually be known by the world. One that made him really happy, not something that simply released stress.

Tony’s touches were so far away from everything Steve had known… it was a bit overwhelming, to be touched like that. Caressed, kissed and generally loved. It was a first time for Steve, it really was. And it was a far more stressing first time than a simple first sexual experience. He knew sex would be good so he just looked forward to the moment it would happen. Especially if Tony was involved. But all these feelings, for a first relationship… it was overwhelming.

Of course, Tony was a genius; he had the answer to everything. So Steve didn’t have to worry more than a second about what was the proper reaction, because Tony just smiled and leaned in to kiss him.

The kiss started sweet but soon took a dirtier turn, since Tony kept running his hands along Steve’s chest. Steve couldn’t suppress a moan when one of Tony’s hands caressed one of his nipples and Tony answered by making a happy little sound.

Steve decided that putting a hand under Tony’s shirt was a good idea and so he did just that, enjoying the feel of warm skin under his palm.

Things could have gotten steamier if JARVIS hadn’t interrupted them as soon as they broke the kiss.

“Sir,” called the AI as Tony took a second to look into Steve eyes before… well Steve would probably never know what Tony was about to do, but he had a few interestingly wild guesses in mind.

Tony groaned something that sounded enough like an exasperated “what” and JARVIS went on,

“You specified that I was not to let you and Captain Rogers get too excited if you didn’t have at least the next fifteen hours in your schedule totally free. And you have to leave in twenty seven minutes if you want to be remotely on time in Lausanne for your conference tomorrow.”

Tony sighed heavily at that. “I’ll take the Quinjet and be there in no time. I’ll just stay with Steve a few more hours…” His voice was slightly whiny, which ruined a bit of the ambiance, but Steve was too busy wondering what exactly Tony was planning to do with him for fifteen hours to care about that.

“I’m afraid that the jet lag is in your disfavor in this particular case, sir,” JARVIS said, his tone as neutral as ever.

Tony pouted, but he did take a step away from Steve. “I hate my life so fucking much right now.”

Steve had to smile at Tony’s pout. And even though he was disappointed too, he tried not to show it too much. Instead he just put his forehead on Tony’s and looked into his magnificent brown eyes for a moment before finding something to say.

“What about we clear a day of both our schedules as soon as you come back from Europe?”

Tony smiled and nodded eagerly at that suggestion, and so they did just that.

***

_**Tuesday, 15th September** _

That night, Steve fell asleep quite easily, only to wake up in the middle of the night. Feeling hungry, he decided to enjoy the fact that there was no more rationing going on and raided the kitchen.

Still sleepy and clearly planning to get back to his bed and cushions as soon as he had put something inside his growling stomach, he didn’t turn the lights on. He went to the kitchen by instinct, opened the fridge and grabbed something that smelled good.

It was only when he was half-way through his meal that he realized what he was doing. He was eating steak. A raw steak. And it tasted good.

Suddenly wide awake, Steve looked in slight horror at the partially eaten steak. He couldn’t quite believe that he just ate a steak raw. Of course he had heard of some people who prefer to eat raw meat, but that was normally minced meat, with spices and on toast. Not an entire steak. Or even half of it.

After a long moment of hesitation and internal interrogations, Steve decided to simply cook the rest of the steak. No need to waste it after all. So he did that and, as he did, he kept wondering how and why on Earth he had managed to eat half a steak raw before realizing what was going on. He knew he was half asleep, but, while explaining the grabbing the first available thing in the fridge part, it didn’t explain the eating more than half of the first bite part. Actually the most frightening thing was that it seemed like the right thing to do.

A few minutes later, as he was doing his dishes, Steve decided that this was not normal.

"JARVIS?” he asked.

"Yes, Captain Rogers, may I be of assistance?”

“Yeah I… did you see the moment when I ate this thing raw?”

“Yes, Sir. I did notice it being out of your ordinary culinary customs.”

“If that ever happens again, please warn Natasha. Tell her something’s wrong with me.”

There was a second too long of silence before the AI answered, “Duly noted, Sir, I will. Do you think this is a sign of you being under a spell of some sort?”

“I don’t know… It’s probably nothing. But I could also end up trying to eat someone alive." Steve knew it was a bit of an extreme theory, but with their line of work… "I’ve seen things weirder than that,” he added, because it was sadly true.

“Indeed sir, so have I." And Steve was willing to believe him, given that JARVIS had access to the whole of internet. "I do hope it is not the case though.”

“Thanks JARVIS. I appreciate your help.”

There was a moment of silence, before JARVIS spoke again, "If I may ask, why do you think Miss Romanoff should be the first to know of your possible trouble?"

If Steve hadn't know that the AI couldn't have feelings, he would have sworn JARVIS was not happy with his choice of first confidant on the matter of his possible mind control.

"Well… See, if I'm compromised, it'll be easier to neutralize me with her skill set… I just… I don't want to hurt anyone and… well Tony has a lot of qualities but sneakiness is not at the top of the list."

There was almost an amused undertone to the AI's voice when he answered, "Of course, Sir."

JARVIS then continued with a more serious tone, "It sounds quite logical." And, once again, Steve had to remind himself that he was probably imagining things, but he was convinced nonetheless that the AI accepted his explanation and, furthermore, that he approved of the way Steve was dealing with his relationship with Tony. It was a comforting thought.

After that, Steve went back to his room, his bed, his pillows, and one of Tony’s shirts that he stole before it went to the wash. It still smelled a lot like Tony and Steve found himself wrapping it around one of his pillows and burying his nose in it. It was not as good as actually sleeping with Tony in his arms, but it was better than complete solitude.

***

_**Wednesday, 16th September** _

The next day the Avengers (minus Tony who wouldn't be back from Switzerland until Saturday) were faced with a minor treat: a guy, who was more of a frustrated ex-trader than a wannabe super-villain, tried to take over Wall Street with a small army (more like a few dozen, really) of creatures that looked like human-sized voodoo dolls. It quickly appeared that he was controlling them with the help of a magical amulet, and once said amulet was not around his neck anymore, the creatures were as good as dead. Bruce didn't even have to hulk out for this one.

During the following debriefing, the headache started. Saying that it surprised Steve was an understatement. Ever since he got the serum, he had been immune to headaches, and he had not missed them. It was a small headache – just a dull pain at the back of his skull – and he had endured far worse when he was young. But he was so surprised by the sudden ache that he stopped talking in the middle of a sentence to touch his head and make sure he had no hidden injuries.

Of course, that alerted his teammates.

"Are you not well, Captain?" Thor asked immediately.

"I… I've got a headache?" Steve said, and there was more wonder than worry in his voice, because headaches were not supposed to be part of his life anymore.

"Aren't you supposed to be immune to that kind of thing?" asked Clint, doubt clear in his tone.

Before Steve could answer that he had no idea what was happening, Bruce cut in, "It may be related to the bite." Everyone turned to him. He took his glasses off and explained, "The analysis is not completed yet, but there's clearly a viral infection going on. To be honest, it's nothing I've ever seen before. I'm running more tests, we'll find out what it is soon."

A moment of silence followed Bruce's small speech as everybody shared the same thought: what if the bite was intentional to give Steve a virus? It might seem paranoid, but they were the Avengers… their enemies were numerous and merciless and even their allies sometimes had dubious views on what was acceptable.

Finally, Clint broke the uneasy silence. "What if she wasn't human? Maybe she turned you into a vampire…"

His tone was light, clearly joking, even if a bit forced, but Natasha had a straight face when she said, "Oh, vampires are easy to kill. The hardest part is finding their hiding place, then it's just a matter of planting a wooden stick in their heart, cutting their head off, burying it at the bottom of a lake and burning the rest of the body."

Somehow, Steve had the feeling she was talking from experience. She stared at him and he gulped audibly before reflexively putting a hand on his wound.

"I don't think she was a vampire…" he said, trying not to sound defensive under Natasha's stare. "It was in full daylight after all."

"Some of them have ways to get out during the day," said Clint. "If you start to sparkle we'll have to do as ‘Tasha said," he added and Steve relaxed at the joke. Tony had once explained the whole _Twilight_ thing to him and he got the reference.

"I'm pretty sure it won't come to that," he said to close the subject. "Bruce will find out what it is soon enough. For the moment, we have a debriefing to finish." He just really hoped the headache would go away by the end of said debriefing.

***

_**Thursday, 17th of September** _

The headache was just the start. The next day, Steve had to stay in bed because of a fever and a migraine. He felt more miserable than he ever remembered.

The only people he spoke to all day were Bruce, who came to check on him every few hours and JARVIS, to whom he dictated an email for Tony. It only seemed right to keep him updated on his state. Tony replied almost immediately and Steve felt torn between worrying that he was paying more attention to his emails than to whatever conference he was attending and being happy that Tony cared enough to reply so soon.

Tony's message was along the line of "should I come back right now?" and Steve told JARVIS to make sure Tony did nothing of the sort. As much as he loved the man, Steve just wanted to be alone until the migraine disappeared. The last thing he needed was any kind of stimuli; everything hurt and his enhanced senses were not helping. So he put his head under the pillow wrapped in Tony's shirt and tried to sleep.


	4. Chapter 3: I’m Inside, Open Your Eyes

_**Friday, 18th September** _

_Steve was on a cold hard floor and all he could see were concrete walls, a single dangling light bulb above his head and bars at the door. A cell then. He looked around_ _but quickly came to the conclusion that he was trapped. He had no idea how he got there. He felt lost, alone, hungry and afraid. He needed to get out of there_ _; needed to find the others… to make sure they were safe._

_There was noise – voices and footsteps. Steve knew they belonged to his captors._ _So he waited, crouching in a corner of his cell, blending in the darkness. His vision was better than theirs, so he saw them long before they saw him. And when they opened the door, he took his chance. He leaped at the first one's throat, making him fall under his weight and biting the juncture between body and head, aiming for the kill. Except that the guy was wearing a suit that protected him. It was made of a thick black material that tasted awful._

_Steve took a second to look at his opponent, searching for a weakness in the suit. He immediately recognized the hideous mask, even though he hadn't seen one like that in years. It was a_ _HYDRA goon. That was shock_ _ing. What was HYDRA doing here? How did they manage to capture him? Was Schmidt behind all this?_

_But there was no time to think. Steve could feel the other men closing in on him. He had to move. So he jumped out of the cell and ran. He heard guns being fired but they missed him. He kept running, taking corner after corner in what was apparently a labyrinth. He followed the scent of fresh air, but the labyrinth continued once he was in the open. He could see the sky now, but still there were walls high around him. No way of climbing, no way of going out and no scent to aid him._

_The HYDRA soldiers were still following him so Steve kept running. He had no idea where he was going. He tried to take only lefts but he never ended up in a dead end, which was strange. He just continued to run, and run, and run…_

_After hours of running, Steve was starting to get tired when he realized that he was not being followed anymore. So he stopped. He looked around… the same too high concrete walls, hard_ _floor and the sky up there, too far away. There was nothing else, no smell to help him find his way, no marks, nothing. So he did the only possible thing, he sat, looked at the sky and called for help. He knew that it would probably alert all the HYDRA goons, telling them his position immediately, but it was also the only way to tell the others that he was there._

_So Steve howled. He howled at the moon even though he couldn't see it right then, the sky too blue, too bright. He howled for his friend, for his pack, so that they could find him. Then he waited._

_No answer came, so he howled again but still nothing. As if his pack was too far away. But he could hear the echo of his own calls so they should hear him too. Unless they had abandoned him. He knew HYDRA hadn't captured them, he would have smelled them otherwise. So they must be somewhere out there, and if they didn't answer his calls… then they didn't want him._

_He heard the HYDRA goons approaching but didn't move. If he was not wanted by his pack then why fight? Steve just looked at the sky, all blueness, no clouds, no birds, nothing. He howled one last time, just in case, but his heart was no longer in it._

_Then, as the HYDRA goons turned the last corner and aimed their guns at him, a flash of red and gold crossed the sky. Steve had to close his eyes for a second, blinded by the shininess of it. Next thing he knew, a pair of strong metal arms were closing around him and he was lifted in the air, high above the concrete walls, high above HYDRA's weapon range._

***

_**Friday, 18th September** _

When Steve woke up, the migraine was gone. He still had a slight headache, but nothing comparable to the previous day. He cautiously asked JARVIS to open the blinds and was pleased to note that light wasn't hurting his eyes. Whatever triggered the migraine was apparentlygone, at least for the time being. He asked JARVIS to tell Bruce that he was feeling better but the AI informed him that the other Avengers were out, dealing with a minor threat.

His first reaction was to ask why they didn't wake him up, but JARVIS showed him the news coverage and it was evident that four Avengers were more than enough to bring back peace in this particular case. Steve still made sure they knew he was up and ready to come and help, should they need him to.

He then took a shower and went to the kitchen with only one idea in mind, filling his stomach with something. Something cooked. He made a point of getting a pan out and ready before opening the fridge. Even though it was a bit after half past ten and therefore later than his usual breakfast time, he settled for eggs and bacon. He almost kept a tomato to eat raw while the rest was cooking but decided against it, just in case. He was pretty certain that he was not being mind controlled, just hungry, but he didn't want to alert JARVIS. He was a civilized human being; he could wait for eggs and bacon to cook, even when he hadn't eaten the day before.

He was halfway through devouring his eggs when JARVIS spoke again, "Captain Rogers, Miss Potts is in the elevator right now. She wishes to speak with you. Shall I let her in?"

Steve blinked, surprised. Why would Pepper Potts want to see him?

"Did something happen to Tony?" asked Steve, worried that he had missed something critical during his migraine.

"Nothing that I know of, Captain," answered the AI immediately. "He is currently buying all the cafeterias on the EPFL's campus."

“What?!" Steve shook his head in disbelief. Tony was clearly too eccentric for him to understand sometimes. "Never mind, JARVIS; he'll tell me when he comes back. Just let Miss Potts in, please.”

“As you wish, Captain."

A second later, Steve heard the sound of the elevator opening followed by the distinctive sound of high heels. He got up and went to greet Miss Potts, still wondering what she wanted.

Steve didn't know why she and Tony had broken up exactly. Tony had been very vague on the subject; he just crashed on Steve's couch one day saying that she was gone and that he wanted to get drunk but couldn't. Then he went on about the version of EXTREMIS he had injected himself with because he knew that Pepper didn't like to see him drunk and so he had engineered the nanobots to work like Steve's liver so he could drink all he wanted without the side effects. Knowing all too well what it was like to be unable to black out and forget your sorrow, even if just for a night, Steve had helped him through it as best as he could, without asking about Miss Potts since Tony didn't seem to want to talk about it.

And now there he was, with Miss Potts in front of him and he realised suddenly that he didn't know her that well. They had talked a few times, mostly about Tony, but nothing personal. And the fact that he had now taken her place in Tony’s heart – and that she didn’t know it  – made Steve feel a bit more nervous about her presence than he should.

"Captain Rogers," she greeted him smiling.

"Miss Potts," he answered, smiling back and feeling silly. He would probably never learn how to talk to women.

"We need to talk," Miss Potts said, letting no space for discussion and heading for the kitchen, where she took a seat at the dining table.

Steve quickly put his breakfast away and sat in front of her. Then he remembered his manners.

"Do you want something to drink?”

“That's not necessary," she said, all business, staring so intently at Steve that he felt himself blush.

Women always made him nervous but ones like Miss Potts were even worse. Steve was utterly useless around women like her. He wished Bucky was here to sweet talk her... But he wasn't, so Steve took a deep breath and asked, "What do we need to talk about?" even though he had a very good idea of the answer.

"We need to talk about Tony, of course."

Of course. "Is it about what he's doing in Switzerland?" Steve asked, deciding against telling her right away how much he knew about Tony's activities. Keeping some cards to himself, even vague ones like the knowledge that Tony had decided to invest in campus coffee shops, was a strategic habit.

"No, no." Miss Potts waved the idea away with a perfectly manicured hand. "It's about his love life."

Steve swallowed and did his best to look curiously concerned and not guiltily involved. It worked on some level, because she explained,: "See, I know he's seeing someone. I know him; I know the signs… I asked Rhodey and he said he didn't know but Dr. Banner and you are Tony's newclosest friends so I thought one of you might know."

Steve somehow felt himself grow more uneasy when she mentioned Bruce than about the whole topic of Tony's love life. It was an odd feeling, and his headache came back with it, just as Miss Potts finished, "Which is why I'm here. Is Tony seeing someone?"

Steve's first impulse was to say something along the lines of “he's seeing me” but he quickly reminded himself that they had not decided to go public with this relationship yet, so instead he snapped the second thing that came to mind.

"Why does it matter to you?" In hindsight, it was not exactly a good thing to say either.

"Excuse me?!" Miss Potts was outraged and had every right to be since Steve was being rude. He tried to make amends, but it was a bit difficult, as if his headache had a negative impact on his rationality.

"Tony's a responsible adult. If he wants to date someone, it's his problem and it's also up to him to decide when to tell other people."

Steve knew he sounded borderline aggressive, but he couldn't control it. Miss Potts seemed taken aback by his reactions and he himself was not exactly proud of how this conversation was going.

"Look, I'm sorry… I've got a headache and it makes me…" Steve tried to explain, but failed because he didn't know exactly what it made him. He was pretty sure it was linked to the headache though.

Miss Potts frowned. "But I thought you couldn't…" she didn't finish and shook her head slightly. "Nevermind, let's finish this quickly so I can stop bothering you, shall we?"

She was smiling encouragingly at him so Steve nodded. She was right, the sooner it was over, the sooner he could go back to his pillow with Tony's shirt around it. So Steve got straight to the point.

"Tony's seeing someone. I can't tell you who now, but there's someone."

She sighed. "If you don't want to tell me then you'll have to be careful for me."

Steve blinked in confusion and she explained, "Tony doesn't has the best track record when it comes to relationships, and his choices in partners can be awful."

"I can assure you he's seeing a very good person," Steve said, slightly offended. "Someone who loves him as he is," he added and she looked away for an instant.

Then she looked back at Steve and there was a hard glint in her eyes.

“I don’t know what Tony told you but I didn’t leave him because I wanted him to be different. I couldn’t handle our relationship, that's true. But I…” She sighed and changed subject. “This is not about me. It’s about Tony and his new lover… Did he tell you that one of his exes once shot him? Did he tell you how many times someone tried to seduce him for industrial spying, even before he became a superhero? I just want you to keep an eye open, because we both know how generous Tony can be and just imagine what some evil-minded person could do with an Iron Man-like armor… or with EXTREMIS.”

Steve knew that she was right, but he didn’t say so, because of what she had said before. Clearly insinuating that Tony couldn’t find a proper partner was a clue on her true goal. She was trying to get Tony back! And she thought Steve would help… but he wouldn’t, so he stood up and growled, “You can’t have him! He’s MINE!”

That was just not happening! Steve had always followed his gut, that was how he had always stood up for what was right or jumped on grenades to protect others, so it didn’t really occur to him that something was strange. In fact, it took him a moment to realise that Miss Potts was now looking at him wide eyed and raising her hands in surrender, trembling slightly.

Steve blinked, taken aback by her reaction. He felt torn between being proud of his quick victory and frustrated at the lack of opposition, because if she really was there to claim Tony back then she should have been ready to fight for him.

Then he realised what he was thinking and felt almost sick.

Shocked by himself, Steve tried to find something to say to ease the situation, but Miss Potts spoke first:

“Captain?” She asked, her voice shaking slightly and looking down in a mix of confusion and horror.

Steve followed Miss Potts’ gaze to his own hands… His own hands that were not his hands anymore. They had a strange shape, shorter fingers with sharp claws planted deep into the table and completely covered in blond fur.

Steve slowly lifted his hands. The pair of furry things that were at the end of his arms moved. He wiggled his fingers and saw the claws that now tipped them shimmer slightly.

Steve closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to understand what was happening, but he had no rational explanation just then. He tried to at least calm down, to not be distracted by Miss Potts’ erratic heartbeat or by her smell. The serum had given him stronger senses and he was used to hearing and smelling better, but it seemed more enhanced than usual. He had never been able to pick the heart rate of someone standing a few inches from him, and there was something in Miss Potts’ current smell that he had never smelled before. It was not her perfume, it was something else, something coming directly from her. Fear, his gut supplied. Steve was not sure how much he could trust his instincts right now so he stored that information for later.

He took another deep breath and re-opened his eyes. Miss Potts seemed a bit less terrified, but still pretty shocked. Steve looked down and saw that his hands were back to their normal state. He also saw the claw-shaped marks in the table. It was a big wooden table, something very sturdy. Thor had once flipped it without any damage. And Steve had just dented it like it was butter. He was strong but normally not that much…

“Hu…” he said eloquently.

He heard Miss Potts swallow.

“Does that happen often?” she asked, her voice almost back to normal, just slightly higher pitched.

“No… I… I don’t know what happened.”

“Is it related to your headache?” she asked, and Steve didn’t need to think much to answer that.

“I think so.” And it was also probably related to the raw meat incident. And there was a high likelihood that this all started with the bite, because while Steve was not a mathematician, he knew that the probability of a wound that did not heal with the serum and a mysterious illness also immune to the serum not being related but happening at the same time was almost nonexistent.

“Okay,” Miss Potts said, taking a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s be clear. I don’t want Tony back. I just want him happy and safe. And I’m pretty sure you want the same thing, so just… Just fix whatever it is you have before he comes back, okay?”

Steve nodded, that sounded reasonable. And he knew she was telling the truth about not wanting Tony back. He could smell it…

Miss Potts nodded back, forcing a smile and walked to the elevator. Steve followed her but tried to keep a non-threatening distance.

He heard her take a couple of deep breaths before the doors opened and she stepped inside the elevator but put her hand on the detector to keep it open. She looked at Steve and her smile seemed more genuine this time.

“You know, I kind of hoped it was you… Tony’s been drawn to you ever since you first met and I’ve seen how good you are for him. But this…” she gestured to Steve’s hands. “I know your life is dangerous, I know you get through a lot of strange things… That doesn’t mean I have to like it, and I don’t. And if Tony gets hurt because of you — and I’m not just speaking of physical wounds here — then I’ll make you regret it.”

She looked at Steve straight in the eyes while saying that and Steve felt somehow relieved that Tony had such good friends.

 

“I have no intention of ever hurting him,” he said, holding her gaze.

“Good. I really don’t want to have to be Captain America’s worst nightmare.” With that, she pressed the closing button of the elevator.

“Miss Potts!” Steve called immediately and she put a hand back through the door, eyebrow raised.

“I… um… I’d appreciate if you could keep that information to yourself.”

“Which information? The fact that you’re apparently some sort of werewolf, or the fact that you and Tony are together?”

“Both, I guess.”

***

_**Monday, 21nd September** _

Tony had been back for less than two days and it had all been torture to Steve. They had spent those days researching on werewolves, but since they couldn't find any reliable source, all they had were theories and frustrating doubt.

Frustrating was the keyword. Steve had had more and more migraines and he lost his calm at least twice a day. He had decided to stay in to avoid any risk for civilians, but staying in when the others were all out for various business made him restless. He went through more punching bags than usual, eviscerating them more often than not. He had no control whatsoever on the claws and that was not helping with his mood.

The other thing that was not helping was Tony, because since they had no idea how the werewolf thing got transmitted, they had to be careful.

Of course, they had kissed already since the bite so it was probably safe to cuddle and kiss, but Steve was unable to just do that. He knew that, should he get close to Tony, he would not be able to resist the urge to mark him as his. And he wasn't sure he could do this without hurting Tony, not in his current state of mind. So he stayed away.

Or tried to, because Tony wouldn't let him lock himself all the time. Had it been up to Steve, he would have stayed away from everybody, just to be sure they were safe. But Tony had insisted and so Steve found himself having all his meals with at least two of his fellow Avengers.

Strangely, that was okay. Steve had been afraid he would hurt them, like he had wanted to hurt Miss Potts, but nothing of the sort happened. His werewolf instincts told him that his team was okay to be around. He could stay calm with them. He could think. Maybe it was because he trusted them and he could smell that they trusted him back.

And they had found that physical contact helped him stay grounded. It was easier to fight the urge to destroy (or to bend Tony over the first available surface) when he had a hand on his shoulder or a knee touching his.

So Steve spent his days destroying punching bags and forcing himself to cook his meat, and his evenings reading with someone – not Tony – side by side on the couch. They had tried movies but he got too invested in the stories and ended up punching through the TV screen when the bad guys showed up. So he stuck to books, even if he tended to rip off the pages when the characters didn’t react quickly enough to an obvious threat; at least they were still readable.


	5. Chapter 4: Pursuit Of Truth No Matter Where It Lies

_**Tuesday, 22nd September** _

The main problem of living with superheroes, was that it was difficult to hide anything from them. Steve knew it was only a matter of time before any of them noticed that something was going on between him and Tony. The whole werewolf thing didn’t help, and it was actually a surprise for Steve that no one made a comment before Tuesday.

He was, however, not surprised that the comment came from Natasha.

“So,” she asked over breakfast, “why are you avoiding Stark?”

“I'm afraid I might hurt him.”

“Why would you hurt him? You're reacting very well to us…"

"It's different. You are my friends.”

“And Stark isn't?" Natasha asked, eyebrow raised.

Steve sighed, this really wasn't how he had planned to come out to his team.

"Tony's more than a friend."

Natasha didn't answer, she just nodded and took a sip of her tea.

"Does he know this?" she finally asked.

Steve nodded.

"Then what's the problem? You're not ashamed of this, right?”

“No, of course not!" Steve answered. "I just… When I see Tony, I want to… um… I want him. I really want him, badly," he explained, trying not to blush at having to tell a woman he wanted to have sex.

“Oh…” Natasha said simply. She stayed silent for an instant, then asked, "Do you want me to keep it to myself or can the others know?”

“I suppose we can tell them, but I'll ask Tony first," Steve said, getting his phone out and concentrating on typing on the tiny device.

Natasha smiled and patted him on the shoulder as she left the kitchen.

***

_**Tuesday, 22nd September** _

A few texts exchanged with Tony led to a group conversation with all the Avengers. Steve had JARVIS write what he dictated, because he wasn't typing as fast as he wanted and he had already destroyed a phone the day before and he wanted to avoid doing it again.

Group text-conversations were messy and not very good for one's grammar, if you asked Steve, but they had the benefits of brainstorming without yelling at someone's face.

Steve had yelled his answer when Clint had suggested phonesex; that was just not the problem! He didn't want Tony that much because he was horny, he wanted him because Tony was his!

But, since it was a text-conversation, JARVIS had simply transposed his outburst in a nice text. Which was frustrating for Steve, because yelling lost most of its purpose when no-one was cowering in fear afterwards.

Realising the destructive urges were once again taking over him, Steve had to leave the others to do the thinking and went to the gym to get rid of a few more punching bags.

That evening, they were all gathered for dinner when Steve arrived. Including Tony.

Steve stopped in the doorway, his eyes set on Tony, who was talking animatedly with Bruce. It took Steve a few seconds to realise that Tony didn't smell like he usually did; there was a definite note of _Steve_ in Tony's smell. Which might be explained by the fact that Tony was wearing one of Steve's white S.S.R. t-shirts.

Normally, Steve would already have been fighting the urge to claim Tony, and fighting wolf-related urges tended to make hairs grow on his hands and turn his nails into claws. But seeing Tony now was somehow ok, so Steve stepped into the room and Tony immediately turned to him.

"Hey, Steve!" he said, coming to him. "You okay?"

Steve nodded, wrapping an arm around Tony's waist as soon as he was close enough.

Tony smiled and kissed him.

***

_**Wednesday, 23rd September** _

As soon as they thought Steve had been bitten by a werewolf, JARVIS had run all sorts of searches on the subject. Many things had come out of that search and while most of them were useless, some had a few tidbits of interesting information. Of course, the most interesting find had been from the S.H.I.E.L.D. database: an agent, by the name Gary Andrew Lagan, had a note in his file saying that his brother was a werewolf.

Steve didn't really want S.H.I.E.L.D. to know about this werewolf thing, at least not until they knew what they were dealing with, but time was passing and most of their leads were either dead ends or would take too long to track before the next full moon, which was less than a week away.

That morning, Steve awoke to feathers everywhere and definite claw marks on what was left of his pillow. Looking at the mess he made, he decided that S.H.I.E.L.D. was maybe not the worst option and called agent Coulson to ask him for a meeting with Agent Lagan.

***

_**Wednesday, 23rd September** _

That afternoon, they all went to the Helicarrier. Every Avenger had cleared their schedule, except Thor who had gone back to Asgard to see what they could tell him on werewolves, and Steve was very thankful to them, because getting from the Quinjet to the meeting room alone would have been a nightmare.

This was his first time out of the tower since the bite and everything was too much.

Steve had already gone once from a normal to an enhanced body so he knew what it was like to rediscover every sound, color and smell. But this time it was worse, because this wasn't just a new way to feel the world he knew; this was a brand new world that he wanted to react very violently. Not only was everything heightened, it also made him feel threatened; like the world was out to get him and the only possible way for him to feel secure was to get the world first. Steve hated these instincts.

But having his team around helped a lot. Their presence grounded him, helped him stay calm and keep his instincts at bay.

Steve had managed not to jump at the throat of every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who looked his way and now he was sitting in a meeting room, with Tony on his right, their ankles touching under the table, and Natasha on his left. The other Avengers, Agent Coulson and Director Fury were also present; the only empty seat was waiting for Agent Lagan.

Less than a minute later, Agent Lagan arrived. Steve looked at him, taking in the new smell while the agent did a doubletake on the room's occupants. Apparently he had not been warned that he would be speaking to all the Avengers plus Director Fury and Agent Coulson.

He quickly recovered from his surprise and before anyone could say anything, he told Tony, “You’re not allowed to joke about my name until you’ve beaten my high score.”

He then went to sit at the only unoccupied spot.

Steve knew that was a simple joke, but he couldn't help but tense because Agent Lagan was talking to his Tony. He tried to rationalise it and took a deep breath while Tony answered, "What makes you think I haven't already?"

Steve closed his eyes for a second and reopened them to see agent Lagan's dubious expression directed at Tony.

Before the agent could retort, Director Fury intervened. “Children, I’d appreciate if we could get a move on.” He sounded as unimpressed as ever so everything was probably fine. And Agent Lagan was now looking at Director Fury, which was better for Steve's nerves.

"Of course, sir," the agent said humbly. "However, I'm not really sure why I'm here?”

“You're here because your brother's a werewolf," Natasha said before anyone else could speak, taking the attention of the agent.

Agent Lagan grimaced, "See, I'm not exactly close to my brother…”

“We need data on werewolves," Agent Coulson said, "all the data you can provide. Even if it's a bit outdated."

Agent Lagan sighed and sat a bit straighter in his chair.

"Well, werewolves are what you can expect of them… humans who turn into big wolves during the full moon. They live in packs of a dozen, more or less, usually far from cities. They tend to stay by themselves, a bit like the Amish, except in the middle of a forest. They need a lot of space during full moons so they tend to stay in small groups and away from humans and from each other. They talk to other packs on Skype.”

“Skype?" Clint repeated, a bit incredulous.

"Yeah, what did you imagine? Mindless beasts roaming wildly all year long? They're civilized. Of course, most of them prefer manual work so they're lumberjacks or farmers, but they have free time and internet, like anyone else."

Steve could almost tell what kind of image of werewolves using the internet each of his teammates were thinking of. Had he not been so involved in the problem, he would probably have doodled some of these images.

Bruce was the first back on track and he asked, "Can you tell us more about the way one becomes a werewolf?"

"Well…" Agent Lagan bit his lip, unsure. "I'm not a werewolf myself so I don't know for sure, but… my brother said it was magical.”

“How so?" Bruce asked patiently.

"Well I thought it would be like a… like a Zombie-virus or something; you get bitten, you get infected kind of thing. But no. Apparently people only turn into werewolves if the biter wants to transform them. Hence the magical part…"

There was a moment of silence after that and finally, it was Director Fury who said out loud what they were all thinking. "So there's no way someone could accidentally be turned into a werewolf."

Agent Lagan shook his head, then he blinked and looked like he had a revelation.

"Has someone been bitten?"

They all looked at Steve and so Steve answered the agent. "Someone has been bitten, yes" was all he said, but that was enough to get the agent's full attention.

"When?" he asked, and although Steve was probably the only one smelling it, he was worried.

"On the 13th," Steve answered and the relief in the agent's posture was obvious to everybody.

"Good, you have time then.”

“Time? But the next full moon is on Monday," Tony pointed out.

"It takes longer than that for the… werewolfism to start kicking in. This full moon, all that will happen to the person who has been bitten is a strong headache."

Bruce looked at Steve for a second for confirmation and Steve nodded minutely. Bruce was the one who had the medical knowledge, it was logical to let him ask the questions.

“How does it work after that? You said it was longer, but how long?” Bruce asked.

“Well… I know what happened to my brother, not more. But… Well… Basically he got bitten, then he was a bit cranky but we thought nothing of it. He had been bitten by a crazy hobo and the bite was not healing well. Plus his ex was stalking him. Anybody would have been cranky.

Anyway, the first full moon after the bite he started bitching about headaches, and a few days later he stayed in his room with a migraine for what… three, four days? After that he got fired from his job in a fast-food for stealing meat. That didn’t go well… he tore the place apart. Six people ended up in hospital and his boss stayed in a coma for weeks.”

Agent Lagan paused for a second, took a deep breath and continued, “So my brother got arrested, and this guy arrived and bailed him out. It was a Thursday, I remember it clearly. I was struggling with my homework when my brother came home with this guy… The guy explained that the crazy hobo had been a werewolf, one of his pack, who went crazy after his wife died. And now my brother is a werewolf too so this guy will take him to the pack, because it’s safer for him there.”

The agent paused once again, closing his eyes for a second. The memory was apparently not a pleasant one. He continued nonetheless, “My mother cried forever. Then there was another full moon and she started drinking. My father left a few months later and I…”

Agent Lagan was interrupted by a pointed cough from Director Fury. He gulped and went on quickly, “Well that was almost seventeen years ago. It probably doesn't matter now. I write a card to my brother every Christmas and for his birthdays. So does he. He moved to another pack a few years ago, and got married. My sister-in-law thinks we should be closer so she makes him write emails every month. Oh and he has a daughter now! I’ve got a picture if you want.”

Before anyone had the heart to tell him that his family photos were not the point of the meeting, Agent Lagan got his phone out and he soon put it on the table.

Clint reached it first. “Oh my god!” he said, looking at the picture.

“What?” Steve asked and Tony immediately snatched the phone from Clint’s hand. A few manipulations later the picture was displayed on the big plasma screen that was on the wall of the room.

There was a long moment of silence while everybody looked at the picture… of a puppy. A sleeping chocolate-furred puppy-wolf, who had a teddy bear possessively tucked under a paw.

“Is that your idea of a joke?” Natasha asked, because someone had to, and Agent Lagan shook his head. “That’s the photo my brother sent me after her second birthday. That toy was my present,” he explained.

There was a moment of silence, then agent Coulson asked, “So, can she turn into a human too?”

“Of course,” agent Lagan explained. “She wasn’t born a werewolf. They bit her when she turned one. I know it sounds crazy but apparently it’s what they do in this pack. My brother didn’t seem to think it was not normal.”

“Well… we’re not here to judge customs,” Bruce said, taking off his glasses. “Can you tell us more about the way the transformation works?”

“Not really,” Agent Lagan sighed. “I’m really not an expert on that. I can tell you how they live because of my brother’s letters but that’s all. I could ask him if it’s okay for you to contact the pack’s doctor, if you want…?”

“That would be nice,” Bruce answered.

Agent Lagan then looked at Tony. “Can I have my phone back?” He sounded a bit unhappy, probably because Tony was tinkering with his phone.

Tony shrugged and tossed him the phone and the agent started typing what was likely an e-mail to his brother.

“By the way,” Tony said to Fury, “your security system has not improved.”

“What the hell have you done this time?”

Tony smile, leaning back in his chair.

“Nothing. It’s just a constatation…”

“Stark…” Fury’s tone was close to a growl and Steve knew he needed to do something before it went any further.

“What? I’m just saying, if you… Nhumft!” Steve had put his hand on Tony’s mouth.

“Don’t antagonize Director Fury,” Steve told Tony, who shot him a betrayed look, but Steve held his position. Because if Tony antagonized Director Fury, Steve would probably end up ripping said director to pieces defending his boyfriend before he could really think about what he was doing.

Tony mumbled something, then he licked Steve’s hand and Steve reflexively let him go. Tony grinned in victory and Steve wiped his hand on Tony’s shoulder.

“That’s spousal abuse!” Tony complained.

“In that case I approve of this union.” Fury intervened. “You can keep him gagged all the time, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Hey, you don’t have a right to comment on our… Mpfft!”

Steve looked at Tony, trying very hard to make him understand that, if just for this time, it was capital that he didn’t play his little game of “let’s piss Fury off”.

“Please Tony, we need to focus on the werewolf problem,” Steve said, then he took his hand off.

Tony groaned, looked at Steve, then at Fury and back at Steve. He then seemed to get to a conclusion of his own. A conclusion that included leaving his seat in favor of sitting on Steve’s lap.

“Tony, what are you doing?” Steve asked. Not that he wasn’t happy to have Tony on his lap but now was really not the moment. And they were not alone.

“I don’t see why you should be the only one allowed to abuse your spousal rights,” Tony answered.

“Stark…” Fury started, but Tony interrupted him immediately.

“Nope! You approved of this union, you can’t take it back. Also, our fearless leader just said we had a problem to focus on and I, for one, think he’s right.”

Fury sighed but didn’t comment any further and so Tony continued, addressing agent Lagan. “So, what can you tell us about werewolves’ mating ritual?”

“Stark.” It was Natasha this time, she didn’t sound impressed.

“It’s a legitimate question!” Tony defended himself. “We know someone who’s a werewolf, we have to know how to act around him. Like, if we walk onto him being all handsy on someone, what’s the appropriate reaction? Do they automatically go for orgies?”

Natasha let out an exasperated sigh, but let agent Lagan answer.

“I don’t think they’re much into orgy. They mate for life and seem quite possessive.”

“Mating for life, really? Isn’t that too bite literature to be believable?” Tony asked and Steve wondered why. Did he not want to stay with him until the end? That thought was oddly disturbing and Steve found himself unconsciously wrapping his arm tightly round Tony’s waist.

Tony must have understood, because he amended, “I don’t say it’s impossible for a couple to last forever, just… If they’re human enough to use internet, surely they’re human enough to fight, breakup and change partners.”

“Their society doesn't work that way, ” Agent Lagan explained. “They court for a long time – and before you ask, yes, the courting may or may not involve some sleeping around –  but once they settle, they stay together no matter what. They mate for the worst as well as the best and they get through it. I would agree with you, but my brother told me that, somehow, they always make it work. Don’t ask me what the secret is. Maybe it’s magic…”

“I don’t think it’s magic,” Steve said. “They probably just talk when they have a problem. That’s what people are supposed to do.”

“That’s what people were supposed to do in the forties,” Clint pointed out. “Now they get married after two dates and divorce after the first fight.”

“Well I’m not like that and I’m sure I’m not the only one,” Steve said.

“It makes me feel old, but I agree with you,” Tony said and Steve felt so relieved he almost kissed him.

"Wait, you belive in true love now, Stark?" Clint asked, dubious.

"Of course I do," Tony answered. "My parents may not have been the best at parenting but they loved each other and made it work through the years and hardships.”

“And you're gonna tell me all this playboying of yours was to find the right partner?" Clint asked back.

"Exactly," answered Tony.

"Well now _you_ sound like cheap teen literature," Clint said, laughter almost audible in his voice.

"You're just jealous," Tony told him. He then turned to look at Steve. "You think we can make it work?”

“I'm sure we can," Steve answered, and Tony muttered, "Good," then kissed him.

Steve knew he shouldn't have kissed back, because they were not alone and that was really not appropriate… But even though he was vaguely aware of a shocked squeal from Agent Coulson and of Director Fury’s long-suffering “I’m not paid enough for this”, he couldn’t bring himself to care.

***

_**Friday, 25th September** _

Steve was doing his best to stay awake. He was curled on the couch with Tony, who was talking with Dr. Foster, Dr. Ross and Bruce. This was their usual Friday lunch and they had invited him because they wanted to discuss the scientific aspect of werewolves. Steve knew it would probably be a bit difficult to understand… but that turned out to be an understatement.

The four of them could have been talking in another language for all he knew. There were so many latin terms and they used abbreviations half of the time… Steve was not dumb, but he lacked the basics to understand this kind of science.

The beginning had been ok; the first explanations from Dr. Farkas, the werewolf doctor that Agent Lagan’s brother had contacted for them, were simple and made to be understood by all. But then Bruce had started interrogating him on the technicalities and now they were looking at the data from the blood analysis Dr. Farkas had provided, comparing them to normal readings and to Steve’s blood and… well Steve understood that this was important but he was starting to doze off.

Unable to stop himself, Steve let out a long yawn. That made the others stop talking and look at him. Steve wanted to be ashamed but he was too tired for this. A part of his mind pointed out that he had not been that tired a second ago, but that was not as interesting to his sleepy brain as Tony who was just there, warm and welcoming. Ignoring the incredulous stares of the others, Steve moved to settle his head on Tony’s lap.

“Are we this uninteresting?” Tony asked.

“S’very interesting,” Steve forced himself to say. “But complicated… you’ll explain later.” He yawned. “With small words,” he added, yawning again.

Tony chuckled and put a hand on Steve’s head, caressing him lightly. Steve stopped trying to stay awake.


	6. Chapter 5: Trust I Seek And I Find In You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From this point on, there has been less betaing than before so some of my mistakes can still be found. There will be an update at some point to remove those mistakes.

_**Friday, 25th September** _

Steve woke up from his little nap to the very agreeable sensation of Tony’s hand absentmindedly playing in his hair. He opened his eyes and immediately realised that something was wrong. What he was seeing was clearly not the place where he had fallen asleep, even if the smells were all right.

Suddenly wide awake, he tried to stand up but only managed to fall off the couch. Which was painful because the table was closer to said couch than it should have been and Steve caught it in his fall, ending up trapped under it.

“Steve!” That was Tony’s voice. “Steve… It’s okay, don’t move.”

Steve wanted to move, he didn’t like being trapped! But that was Tony and he trusted Tony, so he tried to stay still.

Even though it only took a few seconds for Tony to put the table away, it felt like forever. Steve looked at his boyfriend and tried to speak but the sound that came out of his mouth was everything but human. Steve froze. He then very slowly and carefully looked around, and at himself.

He saw the fallen things that had been on the table and the rest of his clothes, torn not unlike those of Bruce when he hulked out. He saw the paws and moved a hand, which moved the paw, just like he thought it would.

Steve pushed himself up. It was easier now that he knew he had to do it as a wolf.

“It’s okay,” Tony said again, approaching slowly.

Steve took a step toward him, realising that he was far taller than any wolf should be. The werewolf doctor had said that werewolves were big but he was more than big… if Steve kept his head level with his spine, he could put his nose on Tony’s chest right where the arc reactor used to be!

Tony closed the distance between them and put his hand on Steve’s head, scratching him. That felt far better than it had any right to and Steve felt his tail starting to wag madly.

Tony laughed, burying both hands in Steve’s fur. “Of course you’d be an adorably overgrown puppy!” Steve growled a bit, he wasn’t a puppy!

“That was a joke Steve, don’t get all growly at me.”

Tony petted him a moment, and Steve started to feel sleepy again. He yawned and Tony smiled at him.

“Of course you’re tired… You’ve turned all big badass wolfish, that has to take its toll.”

Steve nodded, wanting Tony to know that he understood. He remembered the sleeping phase. He had read it in Dr. Farkas’s first email. That was part of the normal changing process, except that it normally took between ten and twenty hours. It was actually one of the last steps. After that, the person was staying a wolf until the full moon and, if he didn’t become completely mad during said full moon, he was a werewolf, end of the story.

Normal werewolves would then turn only during full moons. Children tended to turn during their sleep but that passed with time. Some were able to turn when they wanted though. It was a matter of being strong minded, the doctor had said. Those could decided, any time, if they wanted to be human or wolf. It was however more difficult to turn into a wolf at new moon and easier when full moon was close. It was almost impossible to stay human during the full moon.

Steve thought of that and then realised that he was stuck in this body until Monday. He let out a pitiful yelp and Tony hugged him tightly. “I know Steve, I know. But you said we’d make it work, so it’s gonna be okay.” And Steve believed him.

***

_**Monday, 28th September** _

Saying “it’s gonna be okay” was one thing, but making it okay was totally another, and Tony knew it. The past three days had been awfully long for him, and probably worse for Steve. The poor guy was trapped in this big wolf form and what could he do? Walk around the tower knocking things over? And, with the full moon getting closer, Steve’s mood had gotten worse. By Saturday evening, Tony was the only one who could approach him without getting growled at.

So Steve had spent most of this three days with Tony, probably bored out of his mind (he avoided the others after Clint had tried to play fetch with him and almost succeeded). Tony did his best to keep him busy, but aside from talking about what project he was working on, there was little he could do.

Finally, as the full moon was almost over them, Tony had put his armor on, pushed Steve in a Quinjet and flew them to a very remote island in the middle of nowhere. The island was uninhabited and mostly covered in forest, perfect for Steve to roam freely without worrying about hurting anyone. Tony had told him so, then let him go.

It had been an interesting sight. Steve, in that giant wolf form of his, exploring the area around the Quinjet, then running off in the woods, only to reappear a few seconds latter. He was fast, Tony noticed, very fast. And he could jump high too, judging by the way he ran back to get some speed then got to the top of the Quinjet in one powerful leap.

In his suit, Tony took notes; the readings of Steve’s abilities as a wolf were fascinating.

Then the night fell and the moon rose and Steve lost it. He was not just running around and sniffing things anymore. Suddenly, he was unleashing his fury on any and all things that crossed his path. Killing the few wild animals who were too slow to hide and even destroying some trees, for no apparent reason. Though a scan of what was left of one of the tree showed a huge hive of hornets. Tony laughed at that, remembering Steve’s shocked expression once after seeing a documentary on giant hornets attacking defenseless honey bees… It probably meant that, even in this destruction crazed state, Steve was still aiming for some sort of justice. And even if it was just chance that made Steve attack that particular tree, Tony decided to go for the avenging bees option, as that was a reassuring thought.

After the first few hours of following Steve around the island, Tony got back to the Quinjet. He was certain that Steve was not in danger, so he let himself drift off to sleep.

When Tony woke up, it was to the sound of howling. Curious, he flew to the origin of the sound and, sure enough, found Steve on the beach, howling at the full moon. The sound was somewhat sad, with no other wolf to answer the chant, so Tony landed and, lifting his faceplate, called Steve’s name.

Steve stopped mid howl and turned to him. In a fraction of second he was on his paws, getting towards Tony at a swift pace, yet not really running. Tony forced himself to stay still. This was Steve; he had no reason of being afraid, even if the Steve who was currently trotting to him was a giant wolf with sharp teeth and big ears and so blue eyes… Tony could have gotten lost in those eyes, shining with fierce determination in the moonlight.

It only took a few seconds for Steve to join him and bump his head against the chest piece of the armor.

“Hey,” Tony said softly, raising a hand to gently caress Steve. Steve leaned into the touch, tail wiggling. All trace of the destructive madness from earlier was gone from his behaviour; he was once again a giant puppy. But Tony didn’t say it aloud, not wanting to risk a fit of anger, not when the full moon was just above them.

Tony didn’t realised falling asleep a second time, yet he woke up again at some point, curled up with Steve. Curled up with a very naked and human Steve, in fact. The sun was rising on the horizon and Steve was not showing any sign of waking up.

Thanking whatever was listening for Steve’s inability to catch a cold, Tony slowly got up to his feet, cradling Steve and trying not to wake him up.

But Tony’s movements were made difficult by Steve’s mass and by the damn sand that had gotten in the armor’s joints, and, soon enough, Steve opened his eyes.

“Tony?” he asked sleepily.

“Yup, that’s me.” Tony answered, smiling, as Steve looked around, taking in their surroundings and, finally, seeming to remember where they were and why.

“Hu…” he said eloquently. “Did I… How was I last night?”

“You ran around… and howled at the moon;” Tony said, deciding to forget to mention the destroying trees and killing wildlife parts.

“Oh…”

“You okay?”

“Yeah… a bit disoriented.”

Tony simply hummed in answer and Steve got to his feet. He then paused, suddenly realising that he was in fact naked.

Tony smiled and Steve blushed, putting his hands in front of his manly parts.

“You know you have nothing to be ashamed of, right?” Tony asked and Steve just blushed a bit more, if possible.

“I’d offer to reciprocate and get naked too,” Tony said, tone almost conversational. “But getting sand everywhere really isn’t on the top of my kinks list, so… what about we head home and then…” he didn’t finish his sentence, just wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Steve, despite his still very red face, smiled widely.

“Yeah,” he said, “let’s do that.”

Tony didn’t need more of an answer; he scooped Steve up and flew them to the Quinjet, then home.

[ ](http://sconee.tumblr.com/post/68686968753)

***

_**Wednesday, 30th September** _

As was now their routine, Steve accompanied Tony back to his room to kiss him goodnight. Steve had always made a point of not going into Tony’s room. Not going too close to the huge bed Tony had there. It was not much but so far he had managed to resist the temptation. Except that now, after the full moon, Steve felt more secure about this werewolf thing. He knew, deep in his gut, that there was no risk anymore that he would hurt Tony.

So that evening, instead of letting go, Steve pushed Tony inside the bedroom, toward the inviting bed. Tony blinked in surprise for a moment, then smiled widely before kissing Steve again.

When they reached the bed, Tony let himself fall on it and Steve let him go, staying up to enjoy the view of Tony lying there debauched, lips red from kissing, eyes bright with lust and body tense with anticipation.

“Steve,” Tony moaned his name more than he said it and the sound sent a very pleasant shiver down Steve’s spine.

“I know you said you wanted fifteen hours, but…” Steve was certain that Tony was not going to object, but he gave him chance to nonetheless.

Tony just shrugged and said, “We’ll make it work,” with a flirtatious smile. It was all the confirmation Steve needed. Tony sat up for an instant, just long enough to take off his shirt in one smooth move, before leaning back down, looking up at Steve and opening his arms invitingly.

Steve climbed on the bed, settling beside Tony and running a hand down his body, stopping only when he reached the waistband of Tony’s pants.

Steve had imagined things would go slow on their first time; he had thought of exploring Tony’s body with his hands, then his mouth… But now that he had Tony lying next to him, arching under the caress of his hand, looking at him with a smile that was the personification of lust… now, Steve was thinking that taking it slow on the second round was a far better strategy. And, judging by the way Tony had immediately started to unbutton Steve’s shirt, he was totally on board with this plan.

Steve quickly opened Tony’s pants and slid his hand under them, grabbing Tony’s cock. Tony moaned, bucking his hips into the touch, and pulled Steve to him for a kiss.

Steve had to let go of Tony’s cock for a moment, just long enough to get rid of their remaining clothes while still attached at the mouth. Steve then broke the kiss to look at Tony.

Tony looked back smiling and brought a hand to Steve’s face to trace his lower lip. “Do you have any idea how hot you look like that?” Tony asked, and Steve had no idea but he hoped he looked as good to Tony as Tony looked to him right now. He tried to say it, but the only sound that came out of his throat was a groan. Something low and animal.

“Wow… That’s really hot. But please don’t shift on me, because bestiallity isn’t exactly my thing and…”

Steve cut Tony’s tirade with a kiss, not trusting his voice right now. He knew he was not about to shift, he was just really excited, too much to think properly; too much to keep the werewolf all in. But not enough to lose hold of himself. There was a balance point somewhere between wolf and human, and the less Steve thought about it, the easier it was to find.

So Steve didn’t try to think about anything that wasn’t Tony. Which was easy because Tony’s mouth was on his. Tony’s hands were on his back, pulling him impossibly closer. And Tony’s body was thrusting against his, grinding their cocks together.

One of Tony’s hand slid down Steve’s back and cupped his ass, squeezing tightly, just on the right side of painful. Steve arched into the touch, using what little free space between their bodies to slid his hand between them and grab both their cocks, stroking them together.

Tony let out the hottest sound, something between a moan and a cry that sounded remotely like an attempt at saying Steve’s name. Steve responded with another guttural groan and kept stroking them.

A tiny part of Steve’s brain knew that lube or even saliva would have been a nice touch, but he was too far gone to care. And Tony was holding him so tightly that Steve was sure he would have finger shaped marks on his ass for a few hours so he was probably not worried about the roughness either. With That small bit of worry calmed down, Steve kissed Tony again and increased the rhythm of his strokes.

A few hungry and desperate moments later, Steve felt Tony tense against him for an instant before coming, and the sensation was enough to trigger Steve’s own release.

They laid there, panting for a few minutes, until Tony had recovered enough to talk.

“That was awesome,” he said with a wide smile. ”And you’re staying here.”

“I wasn’t planning on moving,” Steve said, not really sure why Tony might think he didn’t want to spend the night there.

“Not just now,” Tony explained with that slightly exasperated tone he had when someone was not understanding something he thought was trivial. “You’re moving in.”

“Oh…” Steve didn’t know how to answer at first. They had only been on two dates so far and none of those were outside the tower. Maybe it was a bit early… On the other hand, they _had_ been living in the same building for years.

Steve looked at Tony’s hopeful eyes and said, “I’ll do that. But not right now.”

“Of course not _right_ now.” Tony agreed, leaning in for a kiss.

The kiss started slow but lasted long enough for Steve to feel himself harden again. He gave a small thrust and Tony smiled against his lips in answer, thrusting back with his own half hard cock. Moving in would have to wait for the next day, but round two was going to be right now.

He rolled them over with Tony under him, granting himself easier access to every bit of skin he wanted to touch. Steve thought that this plan was definitely one of his best.

***

_**Friday, 2nd October** _

Steve was walking alone in Central Park, looking for a good spot to sit and draw. Tony was having his customary science lunch with Dr. Ross, Bruce and a webcam connection to Dr. Foster so Steve was alone. He could have stayed in the tower or asked one of the others to go out with him but a little alone time was welcome.

Steve had spent most of his morning practicing changing from human to wolf. It had not been easy, but he managed to shift. It took him far longer to shift back into his normal human self and he almost feared he would be stuck as a wolf for another month. Steve was nothing but stubborn though and he managed to will his body back in its true form.

He didn’t go for a second try, mostly because the first one had left him hungry. So he had gone out, taking a sketchbook and the colorful pencils Natasha had gotten him for his birthday, deciding on drawing some daily life scene of any random New Yorker who seemed interesting to draw. But first he needed to stop for a burger or two.

This was his first time out alone since the bite, which seemed like an eternity ago. Steve had been a bit worried that it would be difficult with all the people around but, so far, it had been easy. It was probably because most people recognized him and so treated him like royalty. He didn’t have to wait for his burgers and wasn’t pushed in the subway. All the little things that could make a man slightly angry and would push a werewolf to break someone’s arm did not happen to Captain America.

Steve had been in Central Park for a few minutes when he saw two girls under a tree. They were… what was it called? Steve was not really up to date with all the styles teenagers could have, but those two were interesting anyway. One had a short black dress molded around her body, fishnet on her legs and arms, platform shoes with lots of metallic buckles and an incredible hairstyle in black and purple, while the other had a dark red dress and matching hat and hairdo that seemed to come straight out of a movie on the victorian era.

They looked no more than sixteen and Steve thought it was crazy for kids to get out dressed like that, but if their parents agreed then he was not allowed to judge. And they made an interesting contrast, all black makeup and complicated clothing in the middle of a park. To further the contrast, the one in the victorian dress was reading on a tablet and the other was cross-stitching. Those two were too odd to pass and so Steve asked if he could draw them.

They were surprised, like people often were when he asked this. Apparently the habit these days was to take a picture without asking permission, which seemed pretty rude to Steve.

The two girls accepted easily, simply asking if they could take a picture of the finished drawing, which seemed like a fair request to Steve, who knew that his drawing of random people often ended up on the internet anyway. They also asked for a photo with him, which was to be expected and Steve accepted easily because apparently that was part of his life now.

He had been drawing for a while, working on the colors to capture the contrast between the park’s green and the darkness of the girls’ style and he was pretty happy with the result so far.

He was hesitating on the right purple for the girl’s hair when he picked the scent. It was not something he had ever smelled, but he quickly guessed what it was… The scent was mostly human but with a strong animal note. Steve was almost certain there was a werewolf nearby.

He looked around and spotted a blond woman on high heels wearing a light blue tailleur coming his way. Steve was sure she was the werewolf. She was on the phone and she didn’t slow down when she passed in front of him, but she did look at him longer than ~~what~~ was polite. Steve kept looking at her out of instinct and, a few meters further, she crossed path with an elderly woman who was walking her dog, a Spaniel, by the look of it. The dog barked at the blond werewolf who went out of her way so she could kick it. The elderly woman cried in outrage and went to pick up her dog, copiously insulting the blond, who was continuing her way.

Steve shook his head and went back to his drawing. That blond had been a werewolf but she was apparently too busy being mean to dogs and hissing in her phone to talk to him. Dr. Farkas had said there were some werewolves who stayed out of packs and lived among humans; often because they were married to a human before the bite. That blond was probably one of those. She wasn’t the one who had bitten Steve, that was sure, so he saw no reason to think any further about her.

***

_**Sunday, 4th October** _

Natasha was in the living room, frowning at a magazine when Steve came out from the room he shared with Tony after his now customary shape-shifting exercise; he was getting better at it, but maybe the fact that the full moon was further away was the real reason.

“What are you reading?” Steve asked, curious.

“That’s homework,” she sighed in answer.

“Homework?”

“Yeah, my next assignment involves getting friendly with some people whose main hobby seems to be gossiping about celebrities. If it wasn’t bad for my cover, I’d tell them about you and Stark and would be their new best friend in a second. But I can’t do that so I must get up to date on Emma Watson’s newest tattoo, little prince George’s latest appearances and the mayor’s mystery girlfriend…”

“That sounds awful,” Steve said, looking at the magazine where photos of famous people were printed with bright catch phrases. Natasha turned the page and Steve was planning to stop looking and leave her to her homework when he recognized the blond woman on the picture.

It was the picture of New York’s mayor, who was running for the senate and had really good chances of success. He had his hand around a blond woman and the page’s title read “WHO STOLE OUR FUTURE SENATOR’S HEART?” with an accompanying article about the mysterious blond who appeared at the mayor’s side in a club Saturday night.

“Well I don’t know who she is, but I can tell you she’s a werewolf,” Steve said, pointing at the picture.

Natasha dropped the magazine and turned to him. “You sure?”

Steve nodded.

“I suppose if werewolves can get involved with Starks they can get involved with mayors and senators all the same,” she said, picking the magazine back up.

“Except there has been sagas written about the tight link between Starks and wolves, so we’re more legit,” Tony said, joining them.

“I don’t see how fiction can give you any legitimity,” Natasha pointed without looking up from the magazine. “Also that saga doesn't really end well.”

“Depends who you root for,” Tony answered with a shrug, crossing the room to go to the kitchen, but not without stopping by Steve for a kiss.

***

_**Tuesday, 6th October** _

Steve was at the little café that he liked to stop by to draw sometimes. It was the one with the view of the tower and the nice waitress, Lexie, who knew who he was and never made any comment. She knew what he liked to drink and never let him pay his coffee but Steve always left a tip so it was okay. That day, he was doodling a little dancing Iron Man on the corner of his sketchbook, changing his position a little on each page so that the one could see him dance when flipping the pages quickly.

Steve smelled the approaching werewolf before she turned the street’s corner. He kept doodling, but couldn’t help but tense a little; this was the scent of a lady-werewolf, but not of the blond one who was with the mayor. Steve wondered it this was the one who bit him. He glanced when she entered his vision and immediately excluded the possibility of her being his bitter. This werewolf was a tall woman with braided light brown hair and sunglasses. She was wearing pants, flat shoes and a shirt revealing an impressing cleavage.

She went straight to Steve’s table and took the chair in front of him.

“I hope you don’t mind,” she said more than asked. As soon as she was seated, she took off a shoe and extended her leg to put her foot on Steve’s thigh.

Steve knew that was wrong but somehow that was only a background feeling. The werewolf in front of him smelled really good and was very pretty.

“So my little finger’s telling me you’ve had headaches recently… I can help with that,” she said, getting something out of her cleavage.

It was a pill and she offered it to Steve. He was about to take it when he saw the drawing under her extended hand. This particular little dancing Iron Man was almost finished, only a foot missing. He was in a ridiculous position and Steve thought of Tony doing that and something finally snapped into place in his mind. He looked back at the werewolf and realised she was in fact not that pretty. Her nose was too small, her mouth too big…

“Don’t be shy, I’m here to help you,” the werewolf said, moving her foot a bit up Steve’s thigh.

Steve felt a disgusting shiver at that. He took the offensive foot and throw it away from him, yanking her off hair chair in the process. The woman yowled in pain as she fell off.

“How dare you!” She hissed, getting up. “You have no idea what you’re doing!”

People were starting to stare and Steve didn’t want to risk their life. He was hesitating on the right course of action when Lexie came by and took the werewolf’s purse, handing it to her.

“Madam,” she said, voice firm. “If you’re not consuming anything, I’ll ask you to leave.”

The werewolf glared at Lexie, baring her teeth in an ugly grimace. For an instant Steve thought she was going to attack but she just hissed and put her shoe back on.

“Fine, I see I’ve been a bit too forward… But soon you’ll need me, Captain. I’ll let you the pill. Take it when the migraine starts, then I’ll contact you again.”

With that, she snatched her purse from Lexie’s hand and walked away.

“Huh…” Lexie said. “Did she just try to seduce you into taking drugs?”

“I guess so…” Steve answered, wrapping the pill in a napkin to take it to the lab. “Thank you,” he added and she blushed.

“That’s nothing! She was annoying you.”

She hesitated a second, then added, “Oh, um… Your friend Phil dropped by a few months ago… he said since you come here often some bad people might try to attack you here and since the place is not very secure he gave me a little chip thingy to activate if I needed help. That thing’s so tiny! I think I might have accidentally dropped it in that lady’s purse… Do you think you could ask Phil to give me another one?” She had a comically fake sheepish expression on her face and Steve couldn’t help but smile. The world needed more women like her. And more agent Coulsons.

“Thank you Lexie,” Steve said, taking her hand and squeezing lightly, just once, before letting her go. “I’ll ask him right away,” he added, taking out his phone.

Lexie blushed bright red, bit her lip, opened her mouth as if to say something, decided against it and left.

***

_**Wednesday, 7th October** _

“I’m not saying I’m not happy that this girl had a tracking device to drop into the evil werewolf’s bag… I’m just wondering how much money S.H.I.E.L.D. has to throw away in giving equipment to random people.”

Tony was in the living-room, ranting on the phone and Steve stopped a few feet before the door. He knew eavesdropping was rude, but he was curious. And Tony had a point, there was something unexpected about Phil giving equipement to Lexie.

“I don’t know about the money but Phil gave me one of those too,” Miss Potts answered; she was probably on speakers, like usual with Tony.

“He gave you one?”

“Yes. And I think Betty and Jane mentioned having some too and…”

“Wait a second here!” Tony interrupted. “You’re telling me that Coulson gave tracking devices to the Avengers’ girlfriends?”

“That’s not exactly a bad idea, Tony. We are potential targets for anyone who wants to hurt an Avenger. Do I have to remind you that we can get kidnapped?”

Steve heard Tony swallow, but Miss Potts probably couldn’t hear him, having no super serum enhanced werewolf hearing. However she didn’t need any super capacities to hear the slightly hurt and defensive tone of Tony’s next answer.

“I saved you.”

“Tony…”

“And I fixed you!”

Miss Potts sighed and Tony went on, “And that’s not the point anyway.”

“Really?”

“No, the point is Coulson thought that there was something going on between Steve and that girl! This is not acceptable!”

Steve felt himself smile at Tony’s possessiveness.

“Tony.” Miss Potts sounded less amused. “You can’t possibly be jealous because of an assumption that Phil made months ago… _while we were still together_!”

There was a long moment of silence, then both spoke at the same time.

“ Pep…”

“Tony…” she sighed, and, as Tony stayed silled, went on. “Look, I’ve got to work. If there’s nothing else I can do for you I’ll just…”

“Yeah, you do that. Thanks for not hanging up on me.”

“You know I wouldn’t,” Miss Potts said and there was something soft in her voice.

“Well… Rhodey did,” Tony said, an almost whiney note in his tone.

“That’s because it’s the middle of the night in Syria right now.”

“Details, Pep, details…”

“Yeah, well I think the _details_ of your sex life may also be part of the reason he hung up.”

Steve blinked at that. What details?

“I have no idea what you’re talking about…”

“He texted me just before you called… He said I should be ready for, I quote, ‘disturbing mental images of national icons and crazy engineers making out on vintage bikes’.”

“There’s nothing disturbing about that!”

Miss Potts sighed but dropped the subject.

“Will that be all Mister Stark?” she asked instead and Tony answered, “Yes, that will be all, Miss Potts.”

Steve heard the little bip that indicated the end of the communication. The music that had probably been muted for the call came back on and Steve didn’t even wince. He was getting used to Tony’s strange tastes in music. Doing what those band members did with a guitar ~~e~~ required undeniable skill and Steve could understand someone who dedicated his life to art, whatever the form. And the lyrics were usually not completely devoid of meaning.

Speaking of lyrics the one currently being sung were: “Full moon is on the sky and he’s not a man anymore.”

Steve listened to the rest of the song while coming to sit next to Tony, who immediately cuddled against him.

“Hey, you,” Tony said before kissing him and Steve forgot about the lyrics.

When they stopped kissing, another song was playing. This one said something about “teeth of terror sinking in” and then “the bite of the she-wolf”. Twice.

“Did you make a werewolf-themed playlist?” Steve asked, because if one song was a possible coincidence, two were definitely not so random.

“There’s a ton of interesting werewolf songs!” Tony said, without denying the playlist thing so it was probably true. “Here, have a look… which one do you want to hear?” he asked, handing Steve a tablet with a long list of songs.

Steve wasn’t sure listening to artistic descriptions of his condition was the most productive thing to do, but if he could do it with Tony curled up with him on the couch, then maybe a few minutes of music would be welcome.


	7. Chapter 6: And you’re out to save the world

_**Thursday, 8th October** _

Steve stared at Bruce’s email. The analysis of the pill was a dead end. Bruce was sure it was supposed to have some effect on a future werewolf, who was somewhere between the bite and the first full moon, but what effect exactly it was difficult to tell. He had sent his finding to Dr. Farkas to see if he had a better idea about it. 

That was frustrating, very frustrating, and since Tony wasn’t there to help Steve with his frustration in an intimate way, the only option was to destroy punching bags. So he went to the gym.

Steve was halfway through is third punching bag when Tony entered the room and Steve immediately stilled, smelling something wrong. He turned to face Tony, who looked perfectly fine, but the smell…

“Where were you?” Steve asked.

“In the Pentagon,” Tony answered. “Why? Is there a problem?”

Steve didn’t answer, instead he leaped and tackled Tony, wrapping his arms tightly around him.

“Hey! What was that for?” Tony asked, wiggling until he had his arms free and could wrap them around Steve.

Steve inhaled deeply, cataloguing the offending smell before answering. “You smell wrong.”

“Wrong?” Tony repeated, surprised. “What kind of wrong?”

“Werewolf wrong.”

“What?!”

“Another werewolf has been close to you,” Steve explained, rolling over and keeping Tony in his arms so that they were both on their side, facing each other. That way, he could keep Tony as close as he wanted without having to worry about crushing him under his weight.

Tony blinked, confused. “What you mean close… I’ve not been near anybody. Well except that crazy bitch.”

“What crazy bitch?”

“Secretary of Defence’s P.A. That woman’s a nympho… she said her boss had a migraine and couldn’t make it to the meeting but she could give me a blowjob so I did not travel for nothing.”  
Steve growled in answer, feeling hairs growing on the back of his hands. He willed them back in, taking a deep breath to calm himself.

“You didn’t accept, right?” Steve asked, even though Tony didn’t smell like sex at all, so he already knew the answer. He just wanted to hear it.

“Of course not! But she insisted and invaded my personal space a lot so I wouldn’t be surprised if you can smell her.”

Steve didn’t answer immediately, still focusing on staying calm, as shifting now would probably only lead to a disaster. So Tony continued. “I could do with a shower, you know? Getting rid of that smell… You should come and help me.”

Now that was a good idea and Steve had a lot less trouble staying human with the perspective of a naked Tony coupled with hot water.

***

_**Thursday, 8th October** _

That evening, some of them were gathered for dinner and they were talking about the whole werewolf thing.

“So,” Clint was saying. “We’ve got a pair of female werewolves who suddenly get involved with New York’s mayor and the Secretary of Defense. Plus one who tries to seduce Captain America… bit too much for a coincidence.”

“Indeed,” Thor agreed. “Heimdal also warned me that the one who bit our Captain is amongst the winners of a contest to meet the singer of Darcy’s ringtone.”

“You mean Lady Gaga?” Tony asked.

“Exactly! The young werewolf seemed very pleased, for what Heimdal saw.”

“So either she’s a real fan, either Gaga’ll be a part of the next batch of werewolves… Somehow I feel it’s more likely to be the second option,” Tony said, and Steve agreed with a nod.

Whatever their plan was, the people who changed him were aiming for people with power over the masses and, if politicians sure had some, singers and actors also did. Maybe even more. Steve had seen the power of the internet… a single tweet could have repercussions all around the planet in minutes, so if the person who sent it was mind-controlled…

“There is one thing I don’t get, though,” Steve said, thinking aloud. “Why change us into werewolves. Surely there’s other ways of mind-controlling people?”

“Whichever mean they are employing, it would have to be magic,” Thor said after a moment of thought. “And since being a werewolf is magic, it must help them in some way.”

“I hate magic,” Tony pointed out.

“Me too, but Thor’s probably right,” Clint said, and Thor smiled at him before continuing.

“I am not extremely knowledgeable in the magical arts, but I could ask my…”

“I don’t want Loki anywhere near this planet! I know you think he deserves redemption or something but that guy creeps me out, so just no,” Clint said, suddenly very tense and Thor’s smile faded.

“I was going to say ‘mother’. Loki is not the only magician on Asgard. Nor is he the most knowledgeable… He is the best when it comes to tricks and very good at battle magics, but we are in need of someone who knows the theory behind all kinds of magic. Who would be my mother.”

Clint let out a little half embarrassed “oh” but didn’t add anything.

“Well, before going for inter-realm questioning, we could start with interrogating the one werewolf we have tracked,” Tony said.

“We would need to take her in for that,” Steve pointed out.

“And?” Tony asked.

“And I don’t want anyone getting bitten,” Steve answered with finality.

Tony made a face and was probably about to comment on the difficulty of biting through the armor when Clint intervened

“Yeah, too bad you don’t know any snipers… or scientists who can make an efficient werewolf-tranquilizer.”

***

_**Saturday, 10th October** _

Bruce had needed a bit less than a day to come up with an effective mean of neutralizing the werewolf from a safe distance. They had tested it on Steve’s blood and it would neutralise him for 15 minutes so the woman should be out of it for at least an hour. Meanwhile, the tracking of the werewolf showed that she walked Steve’s usual path between the Tower and his favorite café at least twice a day.

It was then almost too easy to wait for her mid-morning walk and let Clint shoot her with the neutralizing arrow.

When she woke up in the Hulk containment room that Bruce had insisted on having in the Tower, the werewolf immediately shifted to her wolf form. She paced across the room, examining it. It was a nicer room than the one Fury had on the Helicarier; the walls were padded and there were two windows. A big one with view on the city and another, smaller, to the inside of the tower, behind which Steve was standing. The werewolf stopped at that window and growled at Steve.

They had decided that Steve would interrogate her, because maybe he could trick her into talking by pretending to like her. Steve had first been worried that her smell would set his instincts to something ugly, but the fact that she was, for the moment, behind a tick window made it easy for him to stay focused.

"Hello," he said, as friendly as he could. "I'd like to talk to you, if you don't mind?"

She growled again and put her front paws on the window, getting her head closer and looking at the room where Steve was.

"There's just me," Steve said. Which was not technically a lie since he was alone in that room. The others were just watching with the cameras, but she had no need to know that.

The werewolf sat and looked at Steve for a moment longer, before shifting back to her human form. Her naked human form. Steve felt himself blush and she smiled, taking a few steps back and opening her arms to expose herself even more. Even though her face was average, she had attributes that made her an attractive woman. And apparently she knew it. She didn't know however that Steve was not interested in women and that her nakedness made him uncomfortable because it was inappropriate and not because it was arousing.

"Don't you like what you see?" she asked and Steve looked her in the eyes and in the eyes only before answering.

"That's not appropriate," he said. Then, knowing that he needed her to drop her guard, he added. "Also, I think nakedness is not as interesting as suggestive clothing… you know, less fun if there's nothing to discover.”

“Understandable," she answered before picking a few pieces of her shredded clothing to wrap around her waist and breasts.

“Thank you,” Steve said once she was sort of covered. “What’s your name?”

“You can call me Luna.”

“Okay. So, Luna, what was that pill you gave me?”

“A magical pill,” she answered.

Steve raised an eyebrow and she continued:

“You’ve been bitten by a werewolf.”

Steve noded in response.

“The change is difficult… it hurts. And it’s worse if you’re alone. Hence the pill.”

“So what? It’s a magical painkiller?” Steve asked, doubtful. The shifting had not been painful at all… the migraines before had been, but that was all.

“Yes,” Luna said.

She would probably not say more about the pill, as she didn’t seem to know more. Steve regretted that he couldn’t smell her. Surely it would be a good giveaway on her lying or not. But her scent last time had had something strange, probably bewitching, and Steve had almost fell for it so he was not taking any risk this time.

“I can’t see how a pill would make me less lonely, painkiller or otherwise,” Steve said, picking up on the rest of her explanation.

“The pill also makes you aware… with it you can find your mate.”

“My mate?” Steve repeated, skeptical.

“Yes. How do you think I found you?”

“You’re not my mate!”

Luna’s eyes hardened and Steve knew that, for the good of the interrogation, he shouldn’t have said it. But Tony was his mate and there was no way he could let her pretend otherwise. That was just not right.

Luna quickly recovered from his refusal and she smiled once again, coming as close to him as she could, putting both hands on the window.

“You can’t understand if you haven’t taken the pill,” she said. “We’re destined for each other, you just don’t know it yet. The pill will open your mind and show you the truth.”

Steve wanted to ask what truth, but he wasn’t sure he would be able to hear her say she was his mate without letting the anger it inspired consume him, so he changed the subject:

“Who gave you that pill?”

Luna blinked at the sudden question so he explained, “I mean… Are you sure they can be trusted? See my job requires some paranoïa…” He added the last bit forcing himself to smile and she bought it.

“Oh don’t worry! Caine can be trusted.”

“Caine?”

“Caine Bisclaveret, yes. He’s our pack leader, our alpha. He holds all the secrets of the magic behind our condition as werewolves and he can help us being happy despite of it. He crafts the pills, different for each of us, as we’re all different… he’s our benefactor.”

She seemed so convinced by her words that Steve felt some pity for her. Clearly, she was brainwashed. And this Caine Bisclaveret, whoever he was, was behind it.

“Could you tell me where to find him? As I said, I have to be careful. I’m sure he will understand.”

“Of course he will!” She looked around the room. “Where’s my purse? I’ve got his card in it.”

“I have your purse… I’ll find it. If you don’t mind me looking through it.”

“Oh you can look! What’s mine is yours anyway. That’s our destiny!”

Steve took a deep breath and decided to leave her now before she made him lose his self-control. He didn’t know why he was so touchy about that mate thing, especially given that he knew she was mind-controlled, but still… He nodded a goodbye at her and went to find Tony.

***

_**Sunday, 11th October** _

After the interrogation of the werewolf, Steve had been working harder on his shifting. He somehow had the feeling it would come in handy in a fight against other werewolves, since apparently shifting was their default reaction to danger.

He could now easily shift between his human and wolf form, but there was still some inherent problems. Namely, he was faster and a bit stronger as a wolf, but he was far more precise and efficient as a human. And, of course, he couldn’t throw his shield as a wolf…

Steve was in his wolf form when Tony entered the room, not even pausing at the sight and coming straight at him. Clearly, he was getting used to it.

“You know, I think we should attack tomorrow,” Tony said, plunging both hands in his fur almost absentmindedly.

Steve growled a little. Tomorrow was too early; they needed more intel on the werewolves’ base before attacking blindly.

“Yeah, I know, we could use more data. but really, we’ve seen worse. And tomorrow’s the new moon, so I think that’s the best moment to face werewolves.”

That was an interesting argument, one that Steve hadn’t taken into account yet. But if he could shift now, other wolves probably could too. Was the difference made by the moon’s current phase enough of an advantage to balance the lack of intel?

“What do you think? Am I right, or am I right?” Tony asked, scratching Steve with just the right pressure. Steve felt his train of thought slip away from him… Tony smiled and suddenly Steve realised that the whole scratching thing was maybe not as absent minded as it seemed.

Without thinking, Steve rose to his feet and grabbed Tony’s hands. “Stop that!” he said.

“Huh? Stop what?” Tony asked, looking at him wide eyed.

“Distracting me so I’ll agree with you.”

“Oh that. Well it was worth the try,” Tony said, unapologetic. “Also, why didn’t you tell me sooner that you could stop mid-shift?”

“What ?”

Tony just nodded in Steve’s general direction and Steve looked down only to realise that he hadn’t changed back to his human body. Not completely at least. In fact, his legs were still those of a wolf, and he could feel he still had the tail, but from the waist up he looked human. He let go of Tony’s hands to look at his and, while his arms were hairier than usual, the hands were human. That was interesting.

Before Steve could analyse this new form any longer, Tony took advantage of having his hands now free to wrap himself around Steve, putting one hand at the small of his back, just above the tail and the other in his hair, scratching lightly. Which made Steve realised he still had the wolf’s ears. And they were very sensitive.

“Aw… Look at you all wiggly tailed. We should change your name to Captain Fluffy.”

[ ](http://sconee.tumblr.com/post/68672596785)

***

_**Tuesday, 13th October** _

Caine Bisclaveret’s lair was just outside a little town, five hours away from New York by car, but only minutes with a Quinjet. The Avengers had finally decided to go there at sun rise, just after the new moon.

They landed not too far, but just far enough not to be seen and Tony and Thor carried the others to the place.

From the outside, it looked like an old warehouse turned into a fitness center with the moto “shapeshift into who you’re meant to be” painted in brightly colored letters on the front. Their investigations had shown that the fitness was just a cover and that underneath it lied an underground complex.

They had decided that Steve, Tony and Thor would go through the main entrance, as Tony was impossible to bite with the armor on and Thor’s Asgardian nature prevented him from turning into a werewolf. The others would stay by the emergency exit that Luna had told them about. They just hoped it was the only emergency exit.

If things went well, the three of them inside would be enough to corner that Bisclaveret person, and otherwise he would probably escape by the emergency exit and be caught by the other three Avengers. The plan was simple, but it was for the best since they needed to avoid combat as much as possible, because the mind-controlled werewolves didn’t deserve to die.

Even before they reached the entrance, Steve could hear noise inside and, once they actually got to the door, it was opened before them and a shapely blond woman came out, smiling. So much for a sneak ~~y~~ attack. Steve could immediately smell that she was a werewolf, which was not surprising, and that she was not alone. It was dark inside the warehouse turned fitness but Steve could make out two burly male werewolves just inside.

“Welcome,” said the woman. “We normally don’t open until 10, but we can make an exception for you…” she added, stepping aside so they could enter. Steve didn’t move.

“We don’t really need fitness training… We’re looking for Mister Bisclaveret,” Steve said and she kept smiling.

“Of course you are. Caine is in his office. He will see you, but only you, Captain.” She then noded toward the two other werewolves and added, ”I’m sure Bob and Ted can entertain your friends in the meantime.”

Steve knew that a pair of werewolves were no match for either of them so he went in and so did Tony and Thor.

“Please follow me,” the woman said, opening another door that led to a staircase. Steve went after her and, when the door closed behind him, heard the footsteps of the two werewolves.

“They don’t really think of attacking, do they?” Steve asked as he followed the woman through a few corridors.

“If you were worried for your friends, you should have let them in New York,” she said. “This is none of their business.”

“If it’s my business, then it’s theirs too,” Steve answered, trying not to get angry now; it was not a good moment to lose his calm, but all the werewolves’ smells in the facility were not helping him.

The sounds in his earpiece however were really helpful, as Thor was saying, “I had hoped for a stronger opposition… these are not worthy opponents.” and Tony was agreeing.

“And it’s for _your_ friends that I was worried, to be honest…” Steve told the woman.

She huffed but did not raise to the bait.

A moment later, she led him into another room where someone was waiting. The room was an office, with a big wooden desk and a man sitting behind it. The man was middle-aged, with light hair cut short, dark eyes and was wearing an old cheap looking gray suit. The most interesting thing about him, however, was that he was not a werewolf.

"Good morning Captain," the man said. "You sure are an early riser. I didn't have time to get a cup of coffee before you arrived… Maybe Selena could get us some." He waved at the woman, who nodded and left.

"It's an honor to meet you, Captain. I am Caine Bisclaveret.”

“So you knew we were coming?" Steve asked.

"Straight to the point? I like that." Bisclaveret said. "See, it's easy to know when you leave the tower… I don't even need spies, all I need is this." He explained, pulling out his phone. "Do you know how many people are watching the tower, day and night, and tweet as soon as they get a glimpse of any of you? Legal spying system. That's wonderful, isn't it?"

Steve growled slightly, not liking the idea that this man was using innocent people to do his dirty work ~~s~~.

"Anyway," Bisclaveret continued as the woman, Selena, came back with two cups of coffee. "You're probably here to make me spill out my evil world-domination plan, aren't you? Well it's that’s good because I love this plan. It's perfect." Bisclaveret paused just long enough to take a sip from his cup, then he went on. "Basically, I mind control werewolves and put them in important position and so they do as I want. I can control the world from here without worrying about superheroes busting through my door… since the superheroes are mine to control too. So simple and so brilliant…”

“Why the werewolves though?" Steve asked, because he had to. If the guy wanted to speak then Steve was making him say it all, as it was being recorded and could be used later for his trial.

Bisclaveret took another sip of coffee before answering. “Because they're so easy to manipulate, of course. Just a little pill to ease the full moon… and they come back for more. The thing is, if I did it with science, people like S.H.I.E.L.D. could probably find a way to counter it, but with magic? No one on this planet can counter magic. It’s flawless!”

While the man finished his coffee, Steve turned to Selena. The blond werewolf was standing in a corner, as if awaiting orders.

“How can you let him do this?!” Steve asked her, feeling anger rise in him at her passivity. “He just openly confessed to mind controlling you!“

“He does it for our own good, Captain. There is nothing to be afraid of. You will soon see,” she answered, with the same sort of devoted tone that Luna had.

“See, that’s what the pill does to females.” Bisclaveret explained conversationally. “The males are a bit more unruly sometimes…”

“Hence the mating…” Steve thought aloud.

“Exactly! Oh you will be a wonderful asset!” Bisclaveret actually clapped and Steve growled. “Don’t worry, once you’re mated, the sex with a controlled female will act as a booster for the monthly pill… We could start right now. Selena is unmated, you can have her.”

“I won’t mate with her!” Steve said forcefully, but Bisclaveret didn’t seem phased.

“Oh, yes, you will Captain, you will,” he said, putting down his cup and knocking the other over in the process. The spilled drink was clearly not coffee, as it evaporated quickly in a thick smoke. Bisclaveret made a little hand motion and the smoke started to fill the room.

Steve tried not to breathe it in, putting a hand over his mouth and pinching his nose close with the other.

“That’s useless Captain. Fighting it will only hurt… why don’t you enjoy Selena instead, huh?” Bisclaveret said, conversationally and Selena took off her top, revealing a laced bra. Steve didn’t even acknowledge it, concentrated as he was to not breathe the smoke in.

“Don’t you like me?” Selena asked in a whiny tone.

“Perhaps the Captain is an ass-man,” Bisclaveret suggested and she turned around, bending over slightly to expose her backside. She was wearing obscenely tight pants and, in this position, Steve could see that she had no underwear. The fact that this woman had been brainwashed into exposing herself this way was really disgusting.

“Steve? Steve what’s going on?” Tony’s slightly worried voice came over the com. “If she touches you, mind-controlled or not, I’ll rip her fingers off.”

Steve’s first idea was to not answer because he couldn’t speak without inhaling, but hearing Tony’s voice made him realise it was useless. Steve dropped his hands and, reaching for his shield, said to Bisclaveret “Your mind-controlling gas is not working. You should surrender now, before we have to make you.”

“Impossible!” Bisclaveret cried in rage. “What the hell was in that serum they gave you?!”

“It’s not the serum,” Steve answered, positioning himself between Bisclaveret and the door. “I simply already have a mate.”

“What?! But your Facebook status is single!” Bisclaveret stomped angrily, then took out his phone and keyed something quickly. When he next spoke, his voice echoed through the complex, form various speakers. Steve even heard it echoing in his earpiece.

“The Avengers are our enemies! Kill them before they kill you!”

Selena immediately threw herself at Steve, shifting midair. Steve raised his shield to stop her but she was heavier than he thought and he had to take a step back. He pushed her off and she growled at him, showing her teeth. Steve growled back, shifting to the half wolf form he had discovered the day before. The process tore off part of his costume, including the cowl and so he lost the earpiece, but the lack of contact with his teammates was the least of his problems, as Selena launched herself at him again.

Steve stopped her again with his shield, but this time he didn’t push her away. Instead, he followed her down and pinned her under him before slamming his shield on her head. She went still and shifted back to her human form, unconscious.

Steve looked up to see that Bisclaveret was gone and that two other shifted werewolves were at the office’s door.

The werewolves growled at him and Steve didn’t take the time to growl back, simply threw his shield, knocking one off and jumped on the other immediately. This one put up a little more resistance, but Steve managed to hit his head against the doorframe a few time, putting him out too.

Steve stepped into the hallway and smelled the air, picking Bisclaveret’s scent. He tracked him across the facility, knocking werewolves off as they tried to stop him. Soon enough, he heard the familiar sound of repulsors and found Tony and Thor coming from the left.

“The miscreant went this way!” Thor pointed to the right with one hand, while extending the other behind him to get Mjolnir back.

Steve nodded, but he had smelled that already.

The three of them quickly went down the corridor, easily getting rid of the werewolves. When they reached the end of the corridor, they found stairs and, atop of them, a door. The door opened to a parking lot outside, where a dozen of bodies were laying unconscious. Clint had an arrow aimed at Bisclaveret, who was being tied up by Natasha, while Hulk was poking the unconscious werewolves that were back to their human form.

“PUPPIES GONE,” he lamented. “HULK SMASH WHAT NOW?”


	8. Epilogue: And I’ll redefine anywhere

_**Sunday, 18th October** _

Steve sighed, putting his phone down. On it, there was an e-mail from Dr. Farkas, explaining that the ability to stop mid-shift like Steve did was really rare amongst werewolves. He wrote that people with this capacity were called “Moonblessed” and were said to have the greatest destinies. He also said that this would make him welcome to any pack. Actually, some packs would probably fight to have him.

There was also a voicemail, from Thor, explaining that his mother had been able to successfully reverse the mind-control and even prevent those who had been bitten without shifting for the first time to be werewolves at all. Sadly, she had said she was unable to reverse the bite on people who, like Steve, were already werewolves without maddening them.

And there was a pair of texts from Coulson: one saying they had found and arrested an agent who happened to work for Bisclaveret (apparently the man had made sure S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn’t find Bisclaveret nor any of his werewolves, letting the Avengers to do the searches alone) and the other that a press conference was scheduled the next day.

“What’s the matter, Captain Fluffy?” Tony asked, entering the room. Steve made a face at the name but didn’t answer, not sure where to start. Footage of him in his half-transformed state with his destroyed uniform were all over the internet (thanks to Bisclaveret’s desperate attempt at ruining his life while saving his own) and speculations were running wild ~~e~~.

“Let me guess,” Tony said, coming to sit on his lap. “You’re worried about the press conference tomorrow.”

Steve noded, wrapping both arms around Tony.

“Why don’t you just tell them the truth?”

“Oh yeah, I can see that… _Hello dear citizens, I am Captain America and I’m a werewolf, but that’s okay because I’m still the same._ Totally believable.”

“Of course it is,” Tony said, “You just need to give them a few arguments… like the fact that a werewolf’s first instinct is to protect his pack and you consider America you pack so there’s basically no change.”

Steve couldn’t help but smile at that. “When you put it like that…”

Tony smiled back and kissed him quickly, then kissed him again, less quickly. They kissed for a moment, then Tony said, “Or you could give them something else to write about.”

“What?” Steve asked, his mind far away from the previous discussion.

“The journalists,” Tony answered patiently, “give them another bone to gnaw on.”

“What bone?”

“Us.”

Steve hesitated, biting his lip. “I’m not sure,” he finally said and Tony misunderstood his lack of certainty.

“Oh I can assure you that your private life is far more appealing to the people of this country than whatever biological change you have undergone.”

“I know.” Steve sighed. “It’s just…”

“It’s okay Steve, I was just suggesting,” Tony said, appeasingly. “You’re gonna be the one under the spotlight so you tell them about the werewolves, and if you want to sidetrack them to our relationship then you do.”

“You wouldn’t mind?” Steve asked and Tony shrugged.

“Do as you see fit. I don’t care who knows and who doesn’t.”

Steve hummed and dropped the subject. He still had a few hours to think about it. Now, he had Tony on his lap and he was going to take advantage of that fact. And for the rest, well… they would make it work.


	9. Author’s notes: Master Of Puppets

Okay so here are all the notes about different things in the story that I felt like they may need some explanations: jokes, references and other stuff like that. It’s listed by chapter. Be careful that some explanations can contain spoilers for the story!

 

But first though, a note about the titles, because I had fun with that. You might have noticed, all chapters’ title are lyrics from different songs of Metallica’s Black Album. So is the story’s main title for that matter. It was a personal challenge to make it that way. I initially wanted to make one chapter per song of the album to quote them all, but the pacing of the story seemed better this way so I abandoned that idea. Also, most of the time, only the chosen line is meaningful in light of the story, not the whole song.

So here are the songs the titles are from:

 

  * Main title: Of Wolf And Man (is from “Of Wolf And Man”)

  * Prologue: It's Not Who You Are; It's Who You Know (is from “Holier Than Thou”)

  * Chapter 1: And Of Things That Will Bite… (is from “Enter Sandman”)

  * Chapter 2: It Feeds, It Grows, It Clouds All You Will Know (is from “The God That Failed”)

  * Chapter 3: I’m Inside, Open Your Eyes (is from “Sad But True”)

  * Chapter 4: Pursuit Of Truth No Matter Where It Lies (is from “Through The Nether”)

  * Chapter 5: Trust I Seek And I Find In You (is from “Nothing Else Matters”)

  * Chapter 6: And You're Out To Save The World (is from “My Friend Of Misery”)

  * Epilogue: And I'll Redefine Anywhere (is from “Wherever I May Roam”)

  * Author’s notes: Master Of Puppets (is from “Master Of Puppets” (which is not on the Black Album but was too fitting not to use))




 

Notes about the Prologue:

• _Why Switzerland?_ Not because of IM3, but simply because that’s where I come from and it’s always easier to write about stuff you know than to make researches.

 

Notes about Chapter 1:

• _What about Peggy?_ So in my mind it’s very clear but I couldn’t explain it in the story properly… Steve is gay and had always been. And Peggy, well… she was everything he was supposed to like and he did appreciate her a lot. Just not like that. Playing the crush part was a good way to explain staying single while on the USO tour… then, well he kept it up and he had kind of hoped she wouldn’t be interested in him because that would have been perfect. Except she was but he decided the priority was to win that war and then he would tell her and hope she’d understand. Except he went under the ice before he had the occasion.

 

Notes about Chapter 3:

• _Why is Tony buying all the cafeterias on the EPFL’s campus?_ Because the EPFL (which is a science college, like a small swiss MIT) decided to force all cafeterias to apply a minimal price for a coffee; said minimal price being more expensive than what was in use in most cafeterias (true fact). And Tony, being a philanthropist, decided to buy them all and make coffee free for all students no matter what the school said (just because I wish a super-hero had supplied me with free coffee when I was studying).

• _Why did Tony and Pepper break up?_ I wanted to explain it in the story but it would have been info-dump so I didn’t. Basically, Tony worked on EXTREMIS to get Pepper back to her normal self at the end on IM3. Then, well he kept working on EXTREMIS, for the kicks of it. Call it brain masturbation if you want. And once or twice he got drunk and Pepper was not happy so he made a version of EXTREMIS that would make him immune to alcohol. Just that. Then he made a new armor. Just one. And he saved the world with his fellow Avengers, just once. Then twice but that’s not his fault if bad guys want to take over the world, right? Then he made another armor, but just because the last one had been damaged in a fight. And he made a new version of EXTREMIS, just because that came in handy with the armor. And so Tony was just being Tony and Pepper just couldn’t handle it. Too much stress, too much everything. She let go; she had to. And now they’ve both gone over it and it’s not bitter so all is fine.

 

Notes about Chapter 4:

• _What’s the joke with Lagan’s name and high score?_ I didn’t want to make it too obvious but, in case I was too subtle, there’s the thing. Agent Gary Andrew Lagan, aka G. A. Lagan is the guy who plays Galaga in Avengers.

 

Notes about Chapter 5:

• _Lexie?_ I was sure she had an official name in the movie but apparently not, so I made that up because it sounded nice.

• _Does Rhodey have a problem with Tony and Steve being gay?_ No! Of course not! He’s just disgusted because Tony is his brother in anything but blood and he doesn’t want to imagine him having sex but this has nothing to do with who Tony is having sex with.

• _What are the songs on Tony’s werewolf playlist?_ There’s like 200 songs about werewolves out there (plus all the cover versions) so you can imagine the ones you like. The two that are quoted are respectively “Fullmoon” by Sonata Arctica and “She-Wolf” by Megadeath.

 

Notes about Chapter 6:

• _How did you choose the OC’s names?_ I always try to give meaning to my OCs names. For example the werewolf doctor is named Farkas because that’s hungarian for wolf and the female werewolf is named Luna because that means moon in latin (and the second lady werewolf is Selena, which is the greek root for moon).

The bad guy is named Caine, which can mean hunter, and Bisclaveret which is old french for “man covered in fur” (not werewolf thought… that’s “lycanthrope” or “loup-garou”) so his name gives a clue that he’s not really a werewolf himself and that he collects (hunts) werewolves for some reason.

The only two that lack meaning in this story are Bob and Ted, but that’s because they’re basically NPCs. 

 

Notes about the Epilogue:

• _Isn’t the “Moonblessed” thing a bit too much?_ It was part of an original plot point that disappeared. I let it there because maybe I’ll use it another time. Maybe not.


End file.
